Book summary

Two men who look alike, both claiming to be the Lord Lucan--a real person--who killed his children's nanny in 1974, show up (separately) at the office of a psychiatrist named Dr. Hildegard Wolf. They attempt to blackmail her, threatening to reveal a grim secret from her past. The questions raised are many, but among them are: Which of the men is really Lord Lucan? And are there really two men, or just one fiendishly clever one? And has he perhaps sold his soul to the devil? A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

Media reviews

"Writing with what she called 'a light and heartless hand,' Ms. Spark deftly pits her characters against one another....As in so many of her earlier novels, Ms. Spark orchestrates her characters' fates with icy aplomb, pulling their marionette strings as unashamedly as they try to pull one another's....[A]n elegant and chilling little novel."