An eerie novel from the bestselling Booker Prize-winning author. Evelyn marries Laura, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat, and looks forward to financial freedom. Just before the patriarch's death, the plans of a substantial inheritance are in doubt, and a series of otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn's already frayed nerves.

Everything was a puzzle, everything a trap set to mystify and hinder me. 1899. As the new century approaches, English hack writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of a wealthy American plutocrat, and looks forward to the financial freedom this will afford him. But in the midst of a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch''s death, Evelyn''s plans of a substantial inheritance are thrown into doubt. As the unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice for New Year at Palazzo Dioscuri - the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarig - a series of seemingly otherworldly occurrences exacerbate Evelyn''s already frayed nerves: is it just the sea mist blanketing the floating city or is he losing his mind?