Alias Jane Smith

“Fast-paced, rich in humor, excitement and romance.” —Williamsburg Tribune

Only a few months earlier, the young woman now known as Jane Smith had lived a life of luxury and privilege as the ruler of a small Balkan kingdom. She lived a life of glittering balls, the finest furnishings, the most handsome men, the most exquisite of foods. Her only friends were four bearded old men who served as her cabinet, and worshiped the ground she walked on.

Then the Germans had marched in, and she and her four councilors barely escaped with their lives. The elderly men had no idea how to survive in the dangerous, terror-stricken new world of wartime Europe. Jane Smith’s brains and strength of will won them through peril and certain death across war-torn battlefields, over perilous borders, famine-filled countries and criminal rings—to the continent’s edge and across the sea to freedom and safety in the US.

When at last Jane Smith shepherded her elderly charges down the gangplank and into Manhattan, they had only a few hundred dollars left and, used to every luxury, found themselves living in a shabby old brownstone. Jane had solved many problems and survived many dangers to reach the land of liberty. But her troubles were only beginning. Now that they were here—how would they survive?

An unprecedented new challenge faced her. They were safe…but how would they earn their way in this bustling new land, five insignificant figures among teeming millions? And if they did find a way, Jane knew she would have to take charge, remaking herself and her companions. For the qualities that had made her friends with the leading statesmen in Europe in no way qualified them for jobs in New York’s melting pot.

What was she to do and how would she do it? And most importantly, who was she in the absence of royal power and prestige? How would she house and feed herself, let alone the four whose lives and welfare were in her hands? She needed to find work she could do, earn their living and prove herself as worthy a citizen as any other American. But nothing in her previous life or training had prepared her for such a challenge.

Suddenly Jane Smith had an inspiration. There was one thing the five of them knew intimately: luxurious furnishings and sumptuous decorations. What she didn’t know was where, in an unknown new land, to begin—or that she would face competition, racketeers, and the previously unknown problem of publicity. But she had not quailed among falling shells, starvation, and deadly peril, and she would not quail now.

Then, the woman who had been raised for a royal match found the one thing she never imagined in all her visions of a new life—a man she could love. But he was only a common soldier…

Suspenseful, humorous, heartwarming mystery filled with Kelland's signature oddball characters, including:

Jason Tickle of Lard Can, OK: he struck oil and built a palace for a princess, but where would he find a princess to sleep in it?

Rapunzel Tickle: a large, awkward young woman, her father built her a palace, but she didn't want to be a princess; she wanted the simple life.

Mrs. Jim Slemp: a leading NY socialite, comfortable with her adipose, many times widowed, fabulously wealthy, her voice of brass hid a heart of gold.

Sledge Mantor, gangster-about-town: Jane Smith was in his way to a fortune—he liked to play rough, but Jane could play rougher.

Canopus Jones: NY's most popular gossip columnist, Canopus stumbled on the two biggest stories of his life and couldn't print either one. Though he fancied himself a cynic, he had infinite faith in Rapunzel’s flapjacks.

Major Lincoln Bowie of the US Marines: what was so secret about his past that even Canopus Jones would not reveal it?

“A grownup fairy tale in usual urbane Kelland style.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An amazing book. I love the party scene at the end. It makes me cry every time I read it." —Goodreads

"In the best Kelland style." —Clarksville Chronicle

Clarence Budington Kelland was author of nearly 100 novels of mystery and romantic suspense, had enough careers for several men: attorney, reporter, manufacturer of clothespins, director of a major newspaper group, and more. Kelland became best known as a fiction writer, penning some 100 novels, and selling them as serials to the biggest and highest paying magazines of the time—like the Saturday Evening Post, The American Magazine, Colliers, and Cosmopolitan. Many were immortalized on film, of which the romantic suspense comedy and Oscar-winner, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, is undoubtedly the most famous. Kelland appeared alongside Agatha Christie, Rex Stout and Erle Stanley Gardner in the same magazines, but was the most popular of the four. The New York Times described Kelland’s novels as “lively stories, designed to prick the jaded palate, that keep readers pleasantly entertained” and noted that “Kelland demonstrates the emotions of his lovers with a psychological penetration.” Kirkus Reviews called his novels “Bright and breezy, with plus appeal for murder-mystery addicts.” His magazine publishers kept besieging him for more novels because every time they serialized one of them (typically in 6-8 installments), circulation shot upward. Kelland obliged, and produced far more each year than his publisher (Harper and Row) could keep up with, leaving more than three dozen unpublished in book form when he died. His inimitable characters, trademark dialogue and deftly plotted stories, according to Harper, “made him an American tradition and won him more loyal, devoted readers than almost any other living author.” Kelland, as ever self-depreciating, simply described himself as “the best second-rate writer in the world.” His legions of fans, old and new, would likely disagree. There was nothing second-rate about his work.