The Golden Face

After the Armistice, former army officer George Hargreave is short of money and looking for work. An advertisement brings him to Rudolph Rayne, a wealthy traveler who hires him almost at once as a driver. The generous salary seems promising, but the trip to a Yorkshire mansion introduces an uneasy household, Rayne's daughter Lola, and a conversation about a risky job.

Writing as a man determined to explain his own involvement, George tells a crime story in which respectable appearances conceal private schemes. A later scene places a wealthy guest, Mr. Lloyd, at the center of plans involving Madrid, while George protests against being used as an accomplice. William Le Queux combines first-person confession, suspicious conversations, and movement between country-house society and Continental hotels. Readers interested in early British mystery fiction can follow the tension between a paid employee's dependence and his growing objections to his employer.