Dan Boundary, who likes to be called colonel, is the leader of a band of criminals who has ruined a lot of people. Gregory was a young man that lost a lot of money at gambling, rigged by the same Boundary, and that became a cocaine addict and started working for him until he was killed.. the police could never prove anything against that band, although Scotland Yard pays Dan Boundary a lot of attention. In his band there are Pinto Silva, a Portuguese that dresses like a gentleman without being one, Crewe, Lollie Marsh, Solomon "Solly" White and many others less close to the boss.
Solomon is Maisie's father, and Maisie is going out with Stafford King, a very honest and determined officer of the Criminal Intelligence Department. Sir Stanley Belcom is his boss.
Boundary is arrested for blackmail, but Hanson, the key witness who worked for him, is killed while in the courtroom, with poison is a glass of water, so Boundary is free. When he learns about Maisie and Stafford, he starts questioning Solly's loyalty. When Solly disappears, he has her abducted to lure Solly in the open and have him killed. Three months after Gregory's murder a mysterious character appears: a white mask covers his identity and he calls himself Jack O'Judgement. Jack starts interfering with the band's 'business': he creates proof to have Paul Phillopolis arrested for robbery (a shit of a man who has made money selling girls), he hangs Raoul (Solly's killer), rescues Maisie, destroys a big part of Boundary's money, helps not-so-bad Lollie to escape with her Crewe, he has Selby and Pinto arrested after planting break-in tools on one and counterfeit money on the other, plus all the tools to print it in his house.
Early in the book I had suspected Maisie but it lasted only a couple of pages, and after that I saw there was only another person who could be Jack, so it was not a surprise at the end when it was revealed that it was Sir Stanley. He tracked down Boundary and they killed each other. Sir Stanley was Gregory's father.
I liked a lot the simplicity of Maisie putting her hand over Jack's hand, and Jack's simple 'thank you', when he was driving her home after rescuing her, and Maisie's regret of not-even-thanking-him when she learns that Jack killed her father's murderer. I liked that Lollie and Maisie met before Lollie's escape. Lollie had helped Maisie, standing against Pinto to prevent him from abusing the girl, and this created a strange bond between them.
Maisie hopes she can escape and have a second chance, and Lollie trusts her with all the details of her escape. I like that here Wallace, like he did in "The Joker", writes of a girl who can keep secrets.
It was 1920 and yes his female characters are better than many modern ones, so superficial and unworthy of trust. Lollie stands to protect the girl, even after she herself helped in her abduction: she was part of the band, but nonetheless would not let the girl be abused, and Maisie always remembered that and was glad she made it, escaped and married Crewe and had a beautiful baby.
We know it because of the lovely ending scene: a year later, sir Stafford has taken sir Stanley's job and receives a letter: inside only the picture of the family, and we're left with the notion that sir Stanley - aka Jack - was present when they escaped, and let them go..
Ita: Il fante di fiori
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