Emma Delaney knows nothing of life's shams. She is without pretext and assumes that a bright future awaits her as the bride of the wealthy Oliver Foy. Too soon she discovers that her life is a masquerade and pretense her only salvation. No one is whom he or she appears to be. Brushing against the concealed identities and hidden motives of others, Emma quickly acquires secrets of her own. When murder compels Emma to flee her husband's Jamaican plantation, she and her faithful friend find sanctuary wandering the Caribbean. Tragedy cuts short their ocean idyll and delivers Emma from her sea roamings. Once again, she adopts another name, another home, another appearance.
Author
Madeleine Brent is a pseudonym used by Peter O'Donnell. Peter O'Donnell was born on 11 April 1920 in Lewisham, London, England, UK. He was interested in writing as a child, and began writing professionally at the age of 16. During World War II he served in the Royal Signals Corps, and was stationed in Persia, Syria, Egypt, the Western Desert, Italy, and Greece. After the war, he worked as a comic strip writer, and scripted the Daily Express adaptation of the James Bond novel Dr. No. He was most famous for inventing the character Modesty Blaise, an undercover agent who first appeared in comic strips in 1963. In 1965, he published his first novel, Modesty Blaise, which was based on the screenplay he had written for the motion picture of the same name. He also wrote short stories, plays, television and film scripts, and nine romance novels published under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. In 2001, he retired from writing. He passed away on 03 May 2010.
