The Malefactor

"The Malefactor" by E. Phillips Oppenheim is a story set in the early 1900s that looks at guilt and cleaning up your image in society through two main characters: Lovell and Sir Wingrave Seton. Lovell, ready to leave for a job as a war reporter, tells a story about Wingrave, who was just freed from jail for accidentally killing someone because of a love triangle. The story also shows how Lady Ruth, the woman in the middle of the scandal, changed everyone's lives. Lovell's tale asks big questions about what is fair, what is deserved, and why people do what they do. It pulls the reader into a world of secrets and mysteries that shapes how the characters act and what they want.