A tense romantic thriller about stolen art treasures and precarious passion, this gripping story confirms Sally Emerson's status as a preeminent novelist of the mysterious, erotic and dramatic. Patrick Browning first sees Anne Fitzgerald in the British Museum in front of the Elgin Marbles - both young historians are fighting to uncover the secrets of Mary Nisbet, the notorious wife of Lord Elgin. Anne thinks the present is frightening, but finds the past compelling; Patrick lives life at one remove, preferring the women in books to those in real life. Before long, their research spills over into an all-too-real rivalry, a rivalry charged with tension and attraction - a rivalry which twists their own scarred love affairs to breaking point... As well as being a love story and a history lesson, this is an equally effective thriller, reaching the kind of satisfyingly unexpected ending oth er authors would kill to be able to replicate. The Daily Express The plot is complex and vivid, with an enlivening smattering of thugs, beatings and crooked book-dealers . The Sunday Times The ending is wonderful, unexpected and perfect. I wish I could tell you what it is. The Sunday Express It keeps you gripped, compelling you to continue reading to the last page . The New Statesman This is a most elegant and remarkable novel – The Times