A beautiful woman - with no memory - and the people who claim to know her may not have her best interests at heart...

'Vera Caspary is an expert at suspense and suspicion' New York Times

Kate and Allan Royce are driving home from a party in Westport, Connecticut one night when they see a girl in a beautiful but muddied dress wandering in the road and stop to pick her up. She is suffering from amnesia, so they name her Elizabeth X and take her into their home while the police try to establish her identity.

They are left in peace, until first a couple claim her as their daughter and then a psychiatrist arrives to say that she has escaped from his clinic. What does seem certain is that she is the child of wealthy parents.

But who really is Elizabeth X, and what has happened to her?

"Vera Caspary is an expert at suspense and suspicion" - NEW YORK TIMES

"A sleek, saturnine thriller" - INDEPENDENT

"Noir in a nutshell" - NEW YORKER

"See just how slick Miss Caspary's technique of soft-shoe terror can be - how frightening she can make the chatter at an innocent dinner party, the lure of a lady's deshabille, the glimpse of a black pearl in a dresser drawer" - NEW YORK TIMES

"A superb mystery ... a brilliant book" - NEW STATESMAN

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Superior style . . . and an explicit knowledge of the world in which her characters move and breathe