Michael Cox

1876. Nineteen-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst arrives at the great country house of Evenwood to be interviewed for the position of lady's-maid. But Esperanza is no ordinary servant. She has been sent by her guardian, the mysterious Madame de l'Orme, to uncover the dark and dangerous secrets that her new mistress has sought to conceal, and to set right a past injustice in which Esperanza's own closest interests are bound up.

The extraordinary story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar and murderer begins on a cold October night in 1854 with the murder of an innocent victim. Glyver seeks to prove his right to the position of power and great wealth held by his old rival, poet, Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, in this tale of greed, betrayal and ruthless obsession.