Book
The Black Moth
First published 1921
Lord Jack Carstares has lived in disgrace after accepting blame for his younger brother’s cheating at cards. Returning secretly to England under an assumed name, he supports himself as a highwayman while remaining cut off from his title and family.
Jack’s attempt to rescue Diana Beauleigh from abduction brings him into conflict with the Duke of Andover, an old enemy whose schemes connect the past scandal with the present danger. The novel combines Georgian romance, criminal adventure and a struggle to restore a reputation sacrificed for another man.
The highwayman disguise works because Georgian society treats outward status as evidence of character. Jack can be condemned as a gentleman for a dishonourable act he did not commit, then move outside respectable society while retaining the manners that expose his origins. His return therefore tests whether reputation can be restored once public judgement has hardened into accepted fact.
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