The opening pages announce a voice you won't forget. Wilhelmina Castel is practical to the bone, shaped by a childhood watching her useless father panic through endless financial crises while her mother sat helpless by the fire. When he finally dies, she inherits a small sum and heads to London to build a life on her own terms. Her first day in the city throws her into an elaborate deception: Nathan Gould, a stranger with an air of danger, asks her to impersonate his deceased half-sister to shield his dying mother from grief. Wilhelmina doesn't trust him, but she also doesn't trust her own hunger for the opportunity he offers. Barry Pain writes with sharp observation and dry wit about a woman trying to carve out autonomy in a world that hasn't made room for her. The question becomes: how much of yourself do you trade for independence, and what happens when you're forced to become someone else? For readers who love early twentieth-century British fiction with a sharp-tongued heroine, psychological games, and the particular pleasures of watching a practical mind navigate an impractical world.
