商品簡介
A celebrated actress can command the stage yet remain powerless before the court of public opinion. In Melbourne, Kitty Marchurst-known to her audiences as Caprice-lives beneath a reputation for scandal that obscures her devotion to her daughter. When a jewel robbery at her home becomes entangled with financial irregularities and murder, private loyalties collide with theatrical ambition, commercial rivalry and the appetite for judgement. Suspicion settles upon an impoverished aspiring dramatist temporarily employed in a pawnshop, but the evidence is neither as simple nor as secure as it first appears. The murder investigation moves between theatres, newspaper offices, domestic rooms, detective offices and prison, placing performance and detection in constant conversation. Public personas are fashioned, stories are sold, and circumstantial evidence can become as persuasive as any role played beneath the lights. Against this uncertainty, questions of justice and social class sharpen the divide between what society believes and what can actually be proved. Caprice gives the novel its most compelling contradiction: an actress judged by scandal, a mother defined by devotion, and a public figure caught amid money, marital conflict and competing versions of character. Sensational melodrama and detective fiction are woven into a theatrical mystery that also casts a satirical eye over reputation, commerce and artistic rivalry. Its shifting settings broaden the inquiry beyond a single crime, revealing a world in which professional ambition and private conduct are continually exposed to scrutiny. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.
