A nice, solid, almost old-fashioned good read

One day, while out hiking in the mountains near Vienna, a couple of servant girls find an abandoned baby in a remote church.

When they fail to trace the baby's parents, they decide to bring up the little girl themselves.

Twelve years later, a mysterious woman knocks on the door claiming that the girl is her daughter and that now is the time for them to build a life together.

She whisks the girl off to her country estate.

But all is not what it seems. There are nasty secrets and false identities behind every door, and danger lurking in dark corners.

Eva Ibbotson's The Star Of Kazan is a solid, almost old-fashioned story about cruel villains, stolen jewels and false identities, with an innocent heroine in peril at the centre of the action.