The Confessions of Victor Frankenstein
The story takes place in the 1890s. The protagonists are Lord Alfred Shackville-Jones, an amateur investigator, who has won renown through his investigation and subsequent publication of the Count Vlad affair, and his assistant Ernest de Boy. The story begins when Lord Alfred receives a letter from Dr. Albert Frankenstein, the grandson of the notorious Victor Frankenstein, who asks Alfred if he would look into the origin of some giant footprints.
However, on arrival in Grindwald, the remote mountain hamlet where Frankenstein and his family live, Alfred and his entourage are told it was just a hoax. Slowly, it becomes apparent that Albert Frankenstein is involved in something very suspicious. Augusta, Lord Alfred’s aging and somewhat eccentric aunt, decides to investigate Berne. She discovers that a ‘lunatic’ asylum is conducting experiments on its inmates and asks Lord Alfred to join her. She visits a nurse from the asylum, subsequently attacked by assassins, but survives thanks to Aunt Augusta’s skill with a six-shooter. Lord Alfred looks into the mystery surrounding body parts that start appearing in the lakes around Interlaken.
In the meantime, Ernest de Boy goes hiking in the mountains with his nephew and niece, where they discover the vast footprints Dr. Albert Frankenstein had told them about in his letter. On one of their hikes up the Black Face, they are forced to spend the night in Victor Frankenstein’s cabin, where they discover an old leather-bound volume. It turns out that they are Victor Frankenstein’s confessions. What does Victor Frankenstein reveal in his Confessions, and to whom do the giant footprints belong? Are the mysterious disappearance of inmates from the asylum and the appearance of body parts connected? How is Dr. Albert Frankenstein involved?
