Scarlet Imperial
by Dorothy B. Hughes
Handed a mysterious package, a woman finds herself caught in a deadly gameHer name is not Eliza Williams. A fashionable young woman with a taste for adventurous men, she made the mistake of falling in love with Towner Clay—a New York City playboy whose international jetsetting conceals dangerous secrets. On Towner's behalf, she has spent six months pretending to be Eliza Williams, a dowdy Midtown secretary. It's dull work until the day Gavin Keane, a blue-eyed associate of Towner's, leaves her with a mysterious package. Eliza understands that protecting it is a question of life and death. When he comes to pick up the package that night, Gavin is followed, and he shoots the man to protect the parcel's secret. With blood on her carpet and a mystery on her hands, the woman who is not Eliza will have to act quickly to survive.