The Pauper of Park Lane
1908
London's fashionable Park Lane hides dangerous secrets. Charlie Rolfe moves through elite circles despite his apparent poverty, his sister Marion toils as a shop girl in a Mayfair drapery, and when Charlie abruptly departs for Servia, warning bells ring across every drawing room. Who is the mysterious financier Samuel Statham, and what hold does he have over the Rolfe siblings? As Dr. Petrovitch watches his daughter Maud drift toward Charlie with mounting dread, the shadows of blackmail and betrayal gather. Le Queux, master of Edwardian society's dark underside, weaves a tale where respectability conceals ruin and love courts disaster. The result is a deliciously suspenseful snapshot of a world where a young man's mysterious income and sudden departures can spell ruin for everyone connected to him.
