A star-shaped scar links a young law clerk to a convicted murderer and a past concealed behind family secrecy. Lois Margeritta Reddle, an orphan employed in London, cannot ignore the possibility that the woman serving a life sentence may hold the key to her own origins. Her search for answers draws her beyond the ordered world of legal work and into a murder investigation where identity itself has become evidence. A position as resident secretary places Lois inside a secretive aristocratic household, surrounded by hidden motives, suspicious incidents and warnings of danger. Social rank offers no reliable guide to innocence, while appearances repeatedly complicate the pursuit of justice. Through third-person narration and sharply placed dialogue, the novel moves between prison confines, country estates and the guarded spaces of privilege, sustaining suspense through uncertainty over whom Lois can trust and how far deception reaches. The distinctive scar motif gives this crime mystery a memorable thread, binding questions of birth, vulnerability and guilt without surrendering its secrets too soon. Lois occupies a precarious position: close enough to the law to recognise the weight of evidence, yet personally entangled in the mystery she is trying to understand. Country-house secrecy and an amateur investigation combine in a story shaped by the tension between public identity and concealed history. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.
