The Counterfeit Gentleman File

This Slightly Offbeat Golden Age Mystery, Filled With Kelland's Trademark Zany Dialogue And Eccentric, Vivid Characters, Is Sure To Please Readers Of Agatha Christie, Rex Stout And Erle Stanley Gardner. "Clarence Budington Kelland is master of the slick, swift, entertaining yarn." -The New York Times "His mysteries are on the ball." -Criminal Record It all begins in 1956, when analytical Jick Roche notices something odd about Artemus Baldwin, a guest at a society party: although he seems to be a gentleman, he occasionally slips into gangster slang.

What Jick doesn't know is that Artemus is a Secret Service agent masquerading as a gangster who is masquerading as a gentleman. Jick's suspicions are already aroused, but they definitely spike when Artemus finds a corpse with a money roll stuffed in his mouth-and she sees Artemus slip one of the bills into his pocket.

The more time Jick spends with Artemus, the deeper her reservations-and her curiosity-grow. Her analytical mind knows something doesn't add up. Determined to penetrate his secrets, Jick finds herself falling in love with Artemus even as he proves to be an unsettling puzzle of a man.

She decides to introduce him to her eccentric family, including her oddball father and Pomfret Lionel, her geeky kid brother who, at twelve, can spot the difference between a counterfeit bill and the genuine article at twenty paces. They introduce him to a sophisticated, widely-traveled Southern aristocrat and his rather outgoing daughter.

Meanwhile, Artemus has suspicions of his own. He knows one of the families must be crooked-but which one? When word gets around the underworld that a famous gunman is in town on the lam, job offers begin to pile up for Artemus. He knows some are sincere and others traps.

When he finds himself hijacked by two local mobsters and being taken for a ride, the Secret Service man realizes he has slipped up somewhere. And what is he to make of the smooth-talking local attorney who orders him to help sc