'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald Tribune Twenty years ago the five-year-old Traxler heir was kidnapped from his Hollywood home and never seen again. Now his widowed mother is overjoyed when a plausible young man claims to be her long-lost son, a claim supported by accurate childhood memories. Mrs Traxler accepts him unconditionally, and when her niece Charlotte dares to question him, she is cut out of the will. Charlotte turns to Jesse Falkenstein, who is soon as suspicious of the man's claim as she is. After launching an intense investigation, one lead after another falls flat - and even the original kidnapper refuses to talk .