Published By: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 512
Released On: 24/09/2026
1804, Isle of Ray, Essex. Lysander Rose has spent his life searching for the truth about his mother, abducted when he was just a baby.
When the men who took her return for him, Lysander is forced to flee – leaving behind everything he knows. But in his escape, he uncovers a clue that draws him into the orbit of a secretive organisation known only as the Circle.
As Lysander follows the trail from the Essex coast to the shadowed streets of Edinburgh, he finds himself entangled in a world of murder, blackmail and political intrigue. At its centre: an exiled king, and a conspiracy that could shape the fate of nations.
And stranger still, the secrets of Lysander’s own past seem to be hidden in the pages of a lurid penny-blood chapbook – a story that may hold the key to who he really is.
But as the truth of his origins begins to emerge, Lysander must decide whether he can escape the fate others have written for him.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I’ve read three of Gavin’s books so far and my favourite is either The Turnglass or Holmes and Moriarty. I do have Murder at Christmas still to read. This one sounded really interesting and I had high hopes.
This is a good 100-150 pages longer than my ideal page length. And yet somehow I still managed to read it in less than 24 hours because it might be long, the chapters might be long, but it was so effortless to read that the page count just fell away.
I think this is a standalone, but it definitely has links to The Turnglass. I can’t say whether you can read it as a standalone, because I’ve already read The Turnglass but I think you can.
It is a story within a story, an historical story telling an ancient story, which was interesting. Each story was good on its own but also together. I think I preferred the more modern one (modern being a relative term) to the older one, I found it more captivating but still both very enjoyable.
He’s captured such a sense of atmosphere in both parts; it feels eerie, isolated, and with an undercurrent level of danger bubbling away.
It’s a dazzling combination of history, mystery, magic, murder, blackmail, uprising, forgotten pasts, memories forgotten, found family, intrigue. Whilst I read it quite quickly, it deserves and requires a close read, a careful read, because it is very layered and intricately worked.
I am struggling to comment on the characters and I think that’s because there’s so many to comment on individually. We have our main one or two characters in each story but you also have a large cast of secondary or background characters who, regardless of whether they are a goodie or a baddie (I think they’re all a bit of both), are well written and charismatic enough to shine on the page. I didn’t particularly have a favourite, they all have their flaws and good parts, and you do get swept away with them all.
I’m not sure it quite reached the level of The Turnglass but I think because that was so original and fresh and amazing that I’m not sure anything can quite match up, but this is very close indeed.
Books By Your Bedside 