Résumé
Résumé de La Comtesse étrange
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who like quick mysteries with a clever detective, a spirited heroine, a sinister great house and a dash of comedy, and anyone who enjoys the bustle of 1920s London.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
The Strange Countess is a mystery novel by Edgar Wallace, who wrote it as one of his fast, crowded thrillers set in the London of the 1920s. It follows Lois Reddle, a poor young clerk in a lawyer's office, who takes a job as secretary to a wealthy and frightening noblewoman and finds that her own past is tied up with a crime from twenty years before.
The book gives you a chase that runs from a cramped lodging in Bloomsbury to a prison, a grand house in Chester Square and a lonely farm on the Somerset downs. It gives you a detective who behaves like a suitor, a loyal friend with a comic tongue, and a villain who never raises her voice. Wallace keeps the pace quick, ends nearly every chapter on a jolt, and leaves small clues in plain sight.
You will meet a household where the balconies are forbidden, the butler walks like a cat, and the walls seem to speak. Everything starts with a car crash on a country road, and a young man with a very odd way of introducing himself.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A typist's life in Charlotte StreetFree
- 2The woman in the prison yard
- 3Dorn's strange warnings
- 4A house with locked balconies
- 5The balcony falls and a knife flashes
- 6Voices in the canopy
- 7Arrest and a vanishing mother
- 8Gallows Farm
- 9What the story is about
Point clé 1 sur 9
A typist's life in Charlotte Street
Lois Margeritta Reddle sits on her bed in a shared room in Charlotte Street, reading a letter on perfumed paper. It comes from the Countess of Moron, and it offers her the post of resident secretary at 307 Chester Square. Lois has climbed all her life, from a school in Leeds to a cash desk, a chemist's shop and finally a solicitor's office in Bedford Row.
Her friend Lizzy Smith is plain, loyal and endlessly talkative. She shares the rooms, burns the eggs, makes terrible tea and cannot stop matchmaking. Lizzy is sure that a polite young man named Mr. Dorn, who keeps walking up and down Bedford Row, is Lois's destiny. Lois finds him a nuisance.
The house has a landlord on the floor below, the old Scotsman Rab Mackenzie, who plays the violin at midnight. He wears a black velvet coat and scarlet slippers and has not left the building in many years. He warns both girls against the stage and mutters about a lovely wife with a criminal mind.
There is one more detail the reader should notice. Lois has a pink, star-shaped scar on her upper arm, and Lizzy swears it itches before rain. Lois remembers little about her father and only a stout, motherly woman who raised her, and then a vague, sickly aunt.
At the office, the mean-spirited Mr. Shaddles sends Lois to Telsbury Prison with papers for a convict to sign. She drives the firm's battered old Ford and collides with a long black car. Its driver is Michael Dorn, who has been following her for months. When she tells him where she is going, his face shows alarm that she does not understand.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about La Comtesse étrange
What is The Strange Countess about?
It follows Lois Reddle, a young London clerk who becomes secretary to the Countess of Moron. She learns that her own birth is tied to an old murder case, and a detective named Michael Dorn tries to protect her.
Who is Michael Dorn in The Strange Countess?
He is a private detective who once served the police in India. He shadows Lois from the start, and she thinks he is a pest until she learns he is trying to keep her alive.
Who wrote The Strange Countess and when?
Edgar Wallace wrote it. He was a prolific British author of thrillers who died in 1932. The novel belongs to the 1920s, with London street scenes, motor cars, telegrams and letters.
Is The Strange Countess easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the chapters are short, the dialogue is quick and the plot moves swiftly. Humor from Lizzy Smith and Lord Moron keeps the mood bright between the tense scenes.
Who is Lizzy Smith in the book?
Lizzy is Lois's roommate and fellow typist. She is blunt, loyal and funny, and she plays a bigger part in the plot than anyone expects, especially when she teams up with Lord Moron.