Far Above Rubies (vol. 3 of 3): A Novel

Arthur Dudley has hit bottom. Once a man of comfortable means, he now toils as a secretary in the grinding heart of London, his dreams of respectability in tatters. The Protector Flour and Bread Company promised prosperity; instead, it delivered ruin, courtesy of the enigmatic and thoroughly unsettling Mr. Black. As Dudley traces the disaster back through his own miscalculations and misplaced trusts, he confronts an uncomfortable truth: the world rewards only winners, and losers deserve only their shame. Yet Berrie Down haunts him, a memory of open skies and genuine freedom that makes his current circumstances unbearable. Mrs. Riddell, a master of Victorian sensation, weaves a tale where finance is a battlefield and reputation everything. For readers who relish the sharp social satire of the era, the pitiless examination of what money costs, and the particular cruelty of a society that measures men entirely by their balance sheets.