Stranger in My Arms

by Lisa Kleypas

First published 1998

Amazon

2.5(5)

Lara believes her difficult husband died at sea until a man returns claiming to be Hunter, Lord Hawksworth. He is kinder and more attentive than the husband she remembers, but inconsistencies in his identity create a conflict between the marriage she now desires and the truth she is afraid to uncover.

The novel uses inheritance, legal identity and the uncertain evidence surrounding maritime disappearance to construct a Gothic domestic mystery. A wife’s inability to separate easily from an abusive marriage gives the returning claimant enormous power over her future.

The identity question carries legal as well as romantic consequences. If the returned man is truly Hawksworth, he controls title, property and Lara’s marital status; if he is an impostor, every claim he makes is fraudulent. Lara therefore has to judge character against memory in a society where documentary proof of identity can be limited and inheritance gives powerful incentives for deception.