The haunter of the ring

by Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard

"The Haunter of the Ring" by Robert E. Howard is a short story published in 1934. When Evelyn Gordon inexplicably tries to murder her new husband three times without remembering, investigator John Kirowan suspects more than reincarnated vengeance. A mysterious copper serpent ring—a cursed relic from ancient Stygia—holds the key. Kirowan discovers that a dark elemental spirit has been summoned to possess Evelyn, but the sorcerer who conjured it may have made a fatal miscalculation about payment.