7 h 8 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 8 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the most dangerous secret is not what someone has done, but who she really is?
In The Strange Countess, Edgar Wallace draws a young woman into a web of deception, hidden identities and dark secrets. Family names and titles carry weight, but they offer no sure guide to the truth. Behind the promise of rank and an old family lies a mystery in which appearances demand a second look.
This is a crime story built for readers who want a brisk plot and a puzzle to turn over. Identity sits at its heart: the question is not simply what happens, but who people really are. Old secrets matter as much as weapons, and danger grows as the story moves forward.
What you’ll discover
- A young woman caught Follow a young woman through deception, where hidden identities make appearances hard to trust.
- The puzzle of identity Look beyond names and titles to consider who a person might really be.
- Secrets behind social rank Enter a mystery where an old family name can matter as much as a weapon.
- Danger that keeps growing Feel the pressure build as the fast plot brings dark secrets into play.
- A classic crime puzzle Enjoy a mystery that gives you questions to weigh while keeping the story moving.
Who will love it
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’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A typist's life in Charlotte Street
- The woman in the prison yard
- Dorn's strange warnings
- A house with locked balconies
- The balcony falls and a knife flashes
- Voices in the canopy
- Arrest and a vanishing mother
- Gallows Farm
- What the story is about
Who’s who
- Lois ReddleA clever young clerk who takes a post with the Countess of Moron and soon wants to prove a prisoner's innocence.
- Michael DornA private detective who follows Lois for reasons he will not explain and warns her to lock her door.
- Lizzy SmithLois's loyal, quick-tongued roommate and fellow typist, who loves a good tale and has a soft heart.
- The Countess of MoronA majestic, black-eyed noblewoman who rules her household with a cold voice and a hidden purpose.
- Selwyn, Earl of MoronThe countess's weak-seeming son, who loves electricity and the stage and secretly listens to his mother.
- Chesney PrayeThe countess's red-faced financial adviser, who is charming, grasping and afraid of Dorn.
- Dr. TappattA drunken doctor with a bad history in India, who runs a lonely farm and likes to call people mad.
- Rab MackenzieLois's old Scottish landlord, who plays the violin at night and warns every young woman against the stage.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 8 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The Strange Countess
by Edgar Wallace · 1925
A typist glimpses a white-haired prisoner at Telsbury and learns a scar on her own arm ties her to a murder.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
Edgar Wallace
1875–1932 · British crime writer
Edgar Wallace was a hugely prolific British writer of thrillers and crime fiction who later co-created the story for King Kong. The Adventures of Heine follows Heine, a German secret agent, through a series of comic misadventures in Britain during the First World War.
More by Edgar Wallace
All 21 booksMore like this
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