Point of Dreams

The city of Astreiant has gone crazy with enthusiasm for 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 on stage and must investigate. A string of murders follow, perhaps related to the politically important masque that is to play on that same stage. Rathe must once again recruit the help of his lover, former soldier Philip Eslingen, whose knowledge of actors and the stage, and of the depths of human perversity and violence, blends well with Rathe's own hard-won experience with human greed and magical mayhem. Mystery, political intrigue, floral magic, astrology, and romance—both theatrical and personal—combine to make this a compelling read.