Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley is a grouchy moneylender in Renee's Imagination Station mystery set in Victorian London. After a diamond-and-ruby necklace disappears, he immediately accuses his maid, Nell Trent, and demands her arrest. Emily discovers that the necklace originally belonged to Nell, who surrendered it to pay for medical treatment for her sick daughter Molly. Marley cares more about ownership and punishment than the family's suffering. He is delighted to blame a boastful dockside criminal simply because the man enjoys robbery, even before the evidence fits. When Molly admits hiding the necklace as a gift for her mother, Marley's harsh demands leave Emily facing a difficult choice between enforcing the law, protecting a child, and refusing to condemn an innocent man.