Nym Crinkle

The Toltec Cup: A Novel of Old New York - Excelsior Editions Nym Crinkle

The Toltec Cup was published in 1890 by Andrew Carpenter Wheeler under the pseudonym of Nym Crinkle. A tale of conspiracy and love triangles, the novel centers on a mysterious silver cup covered in hieroglyphs that goes missing just days after its owner's death. New York Police Inspector John Wilder grows suspicious when someone offers a huge reward for the cup's return. Wilder traces the reward to Colin Carteret, an artist engaged to the murdered man's daughter, who swears he did not know of the cup before the reward appeared in the newspaper. Together, the two men follow a trail of clues that lead them to New York City slums, a beautiful young woman named Manuella Castleton, and a syndicate that believes that the cup will lead to an extraordinary buried treasure.

Contemporary readers will enjoy the novel's remarkable depictions of mid-nineteenth-century New York City. Roaming the Gas House District, the Bowery, Union Square, Harlem, and the Meatpacking District, The Toltec Cup explores a dynamic landscape and diverse peoples. This new edition revives a forgotten world for a new generation of readers.