A Poor Wise Man - Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart offers a superb blend of romance and suspense amidst political tensions in this story set in early 20th Century America. The characters are compelling and representative of the various socioeconomic classes. The reader follows the complicated relationship of Lily Cardew (just returned from working with the Red Cross during the war) who finds herself unable to go back to the empty social life of the rich and William Wallace Cameron, an honest, fearless and patriotic pharmacy clerk during the turbulent times of an industrial town. - Summary by Celine Major