The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was obsessed with identity.

As soon as you start looking, you see impersonators everywhere in the crime fiction of the 1920s and 1930s.

Sometimes there's more than one in a single novel.

Without the readily available means of independently verifying that someone was who they claimed to be that police have today,

during the interwar period, it was entirely plausible that an imposter could go unquestioned even in extreme cases by their own family.

To 21st century readers, the common mystery fiction trope of the mysterious cousin from the colonies who conveniently turns up with a claim to the fortune in a ready motive for murder seems just that, a handi-fictional device.

But when writers like Josephine Tay, Agatha Christie and others were introducing themes of identity into their who done it,

they were doing so in the shadow of a notorious and infamous Victorian case of impersonation, inheritance and false identity.

This is the story of the tit-born claimant.

Welcome to She Done It. I'm Caroline Crampton.

Before we get started, I have a couple of notices to share with you.

The first is an exciting bit of news. She done it is hiring.

Thanks to the ongoing support of She Done It Book Club members and everyone who took part in the pledge drive at the end of last year,

I'm able to take on a part-time production assistant to help me with the process of making the podcast.

It's a flexible and fully remote position, and you can find more details and information on how to apply at She Done It Show.com slash production assistant,

or by clicking the link in the episode description.

Please do take a look if you're interested, or pass it on to anyone you know who might be suitable.

The deadline for applications is the 30th of January 2022.

And secondly, I do want to give a proper spoiler warning for this episode.

I'm not going to fully reveal any plots in huge detail,

but the subject matter does require me to mention some happenings fairly late on in a few books.

If you'd like to read any of the titles listed in the episode description without any prior knowledge,

...