The Impostor: A Tale of Old Annapolis

A young man washes ashore in colonial Maryland with nothing but another man's name. That's the audacious hook of John Reed Scott's early 20th-century romp through old Annapolis, where identity is currency and a clever face can open any door. Sir Edward Parkington survives a shipwreck, steals the identity of the real Sir Edward, and inserts himself into the glittering social world of 18th-century Annapolis. But colonial society is a gilded trap. The real Sir Edward has enemies, the truth has a way of surfacing, and somewhere in the drawing rooms and candlelit affairs of Maryland's colonial capital, someone knows exactly who he isn't. Romance complicates everything: a lady's affection cannot be built on a lie, and honor demands choices this impostor may not be ready to make. Scott writes with the breathless energy of a locked-room mystery, trapping his protagonist in an ever-tightening web of mistaken identities and rising danger. The colonial backdrop crackles with pre-revolutionary tension. This is a novel about the weight of masks - how easy they are to wear, how impossible to remove.