1926 Assumed First Edition The Red Ledger Frank L. Packard Thriller Underworld.

Henri Raoul Charlebois is a very wealthy man at the time of this novel but that wasn’t always the case. Twenty years back he was sick and hungry, surviving only on the charity of the various people he met as he wandered around the country. And not everyone he encountered was generous either. When his fortunes finally change he sets down the details of those grim days, the good and the bad, in a book known as the Red Ledger. Among those providing aid to Charlebois were the parents of Ewen Stranway. So, with their deaths and the subsequent impoverishment of young college graduate Ewen, Charlebois steps in to return the favor. Stranway is offered a position with the vast world-spanning organization that monitors the many, many people listed in the Red Ledger. Those who are now in need of assistance themselves are given help, usually in combating criminals who threaten them, while the villains of the past are finally brought to justice since they continued their evil ways over the decades and now victimize all of society instead of just one harmless beggar. Practically overnight Ewan comes to head Charlebois' private secret service - and in effect becomes a son to the old man.