Well done, Ian Morson! Histmyst readers will remember his Falconer series, and short stories with the Mediaeval Murderers. Now he returns to novels with this new series, set in a place where no historical mystery writer has gone before. It is always a pleasant surprise when somebody breaks out of the mold, and armchair travelers can settle back and enjoy reading about the perils of journeying to, and staying in the fabled city of Xanadu. Morson conjures up an exotic, foreign and dangerous place with an admirable economy of words, and having the lively Niccolo narrate the story, in his chatty way, allows us a mediator through which to view an alien civilization. The story itself will have readers chasing after red herrings and wondering what will happen next. What I hope happens next is another book, and then another! Highly recommended, especially to anybody who is hankering after something a bit different to the norm.