Summary
Summary of The Strange Countess
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A new job promises a different life
Lois Reddle has worked her way from school to a solicitor's office when an offer arrives from the Countess of Moron. A resident secretary's post promises a change from the room she shares with her loyal, talkative friend Lizzy. Yet Lois knows little about her own beginnings beyond the women who raised her and a star-shaped scar on her arm. On an errand to a prison, a collision brings her face to face with Michael Dorn, a man who has been following her.
Key idea 2
A prison visit reveals her mother
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Key idea 3
Dorn knows more than Lois understands
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Key idea 4
The grand house offers no safety
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Key idea 5
The voices have a hidden source
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Key idea 6
An arrest becomes an attempt at protection
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Key idea 7
The search leads to Gallows Farm
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Key idea 8
Appearances help keep old lies alive
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Key idea 9
Small clues and loyal friends matter
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
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.
What this book is
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.
In this summary
- 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
Key point 1 of 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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What does Lois resolve to do after investigating her mother's trial?
Right. “She also decides that her mother is innocent, and she vows to prove it.”Not quite. “She also decides that her mother is innocent, and she vows to prove it.”
Why does Dorn have Lois arrested?
Right. “Dorn tells the sergeant that he has done it to keep her safe, and he follows a trail of blue envelopes that someone in his own building has been holding back.”Not quite. “Dorn tells the sergeant that he has done it to keep her safe, and he follows a trail of blue envelopes that someone in his own building has been holding back.”
How do the countess and doctor try to undermine Lois's account of events?
Right. “The countess and the doctor repeatedly suggest that Lois hears voices.”Not quite. “The countess and the doctor repeatedly suggest that Lois hears voices.”
Questions about The Strange Countess
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.
