"Could one rare plant hold the key to a thousand riches? It's the summer of 1822 and Edinburgh is abuzz with rumors of King George IV's impending visit. In botanical circles, however, a different kind of excitement has gripped the city. In the newly-installed Botanic Garden, the Agave Americana plant looks set to flower - an event that only occurs once every few decades. When newly widowed Elizabeth arrives in Edinburgh to live with her late husband's...

"A haunting, wildly imagined novel by the acclaimed author of History of a Pleasure Seeker ("the best new work of fiction ... in many moons; a classic"--The Washington Post); set in the first decades of twentieth-century colonial Cape Town and in a spirit-filled forest of secrets and magic powers. It is 1914. Germany has just declared war on France. Piet Barol, the handsome, irresistible figure of Mason's much-admired, sensuous History of a Pleasure...

Christopher Chance has made a living out of being a human target-a man hired to disguise himself as his client to invite would-be assassins to attempt his murder. He's had a remarkable career until his latest case protecting Lex Luthor when things go sideways.--