London, 1932: Inspector Japp brings the Yard’s most notorious “criminal lovers” into custody—handsome Leonard Jones and the dark-eyed girl with too many names—and the Belgian Detective senses at once that the public romance is only costume; as witness statements, hotel bills, and staged alibis reveal a pattern of one person being seen while the other vanishes to act, the case turns from jewels and motor-cars to blackmail ledgers, a Grey Street killing, and a Charing Cross hat-box holding disguises, letters, and a photograph that should have been worthless; step by step, the legend collapses into design—two performances, one partnership without trust, and a motive that isn’t thrill or love but the desperate need to control a birth and the name attached to it; inspired by historical crime of its era while remaining entirely fictional, The Name Beneath the Legend is an original Golden Age–style mystery about notoriety as camouflage, vanity as leverage, and the quiet cruelty of making identity something to bargain over.