With translation rights sold in twenty-five countries, Gordon Dahlquist"s spectacular and extraordinary debut novel was one of the most-talked-about acquisitions of 2005. Now this monumental Victorian thriller is destined to be the publishing sensation of 2006. It began with a simple note: a letter of rejection from Miss Temple"s fiance, written on crisp Ministry paper and delivered on her maid"s silver tray. But for Miss Temple, Roger Bascombe"s cruel rejection will ignite a harrowing quest for answers, plunging her into a mystery as dizzying as a hall of mirrors - and a remote estate where danger abounds and all inhibitions are stripped bare.…Thus begins Gordon Dahlquist"s debut novel of Victorian suspense - at once a dazzling feast for the senses and a beguiling, erotic literary adventure. Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for where her pursuit of Roger Bascombe would take her - or for the shocking things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding...