It begins with a letter of rejection from Miss Celestial “Celeste” Temple’s fiancé, Roger Bascombe, delivered on her maid’s silver tray. But her quest for answers (surely nobody dumps someone by message!) takes her to the forbidding Harschmort Manor, where she finds acts of licentiousness, violence, and hedonism. But there she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a scarred assassin in red, brutal but with the soul of a poet. And Captain-Surgeon Abelard Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic. Both of whom, like her, […]