I bought this because I liked Marchmont's other novel, By Right of Sword. Both are plainly influenced by Anthony Hope's Ruritanian novels. In this one a half-English German nobleman knocks out the future Emperor William II in a drunken brawl and being in total disgrace needs to die "naturally" --a sympathetic doctor arranges his "death" after which he spends 5 years as an actor, then is mistaken for the heir to German principality, nephew of the dying prince whose own son was killed in a forced duel, leaving a beautiful sister who is also a possible claimant to the throne of Bavaria. There is a plot to depose the mad king (presumably Ludwig II) and put her on the throne, but she is also expected to marry the villain, who had previously bigamously married the hero's sister who died of the disgrace. It gets more complicated from there. Somehow it is harder to accept these wild plots in real countries ike Germany (in this book) or Russia (in Sword) than it is in Ruritania, but they are still fun. ( )