Overview

The citizens of Astreiant have become obssessed by a new play, The Drowned Island, a lurid farrago of melodrama and innuendo. Pointsman Nicolas Rathe is not amused, however, at a real dead body found on the stage and must investigate. A string of murders follows, perhaps related to the politically important masque that is to play on that same stage. Rathe must once again call on the help of his soldier lover, Philip Eslingen, whose knowledge of actors and the stage blends well with Rathe’s own hard-won experience of human greed and magical mayhem. Their task is complicated by the season, for it is the time of year when the spirits of the dead haunt the city and influence everyone, and also by the change in their relationship when the loss of Philip’s job forces him to move in with Nicolas. Mystery, political intrigue, magic, and romance—on and off stage—fill the pages of this Lambda Literary Award-winning novel.