The trail of the Serpent is the debut novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, first published in 1860 as Three Times Dead; or, The Secret of the Heath.
Portraying many themes associated with the sensation novel - including violence, potential bigamy and the lunatic asylum - it has also been hailed as.
The story concerns the schemes of the orphan Jabez North to acquire an aristocratic fortune, and the efforts of Richard Marwood, aided by his friends, to prove his innocence in the murder of his uncle.
The trail of the Serpent is the debut novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, first published in 1860 as Three Times Dead; or, The Secret of the Heath