Books with title Brat Farrar

In Brat Farrar, Josephine Tey presents one of the most attractive imposters in mystery fiction. Young Farrar, a product of an orphange, closely resembles the dead heir-presumably sucicide-to Lachetts, a British country estate. Mostly because of his great love of horses he is persuaded to pose as Patrick Ashby, the heir, and claim the inheritance. When an attempt is made on his life, Farrar knows Patrick was murdered and by whom-but to reveal it he would have to reveal his own fraud.

In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life.

It was eight years since Patrick had vanished leaving a pitiful note, “I’m sorry but I can’t bear it any longer. Don’t be angry with me, Patrick.” Now it seemed, he had returned — just in time to claim the family inheritance. But if Patrick really had committed suicide, who was this mysterious young man claiming to be him and calling himself Brat Farrar?

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