Part historical novel, part revisionist tract, part smirking pastiche of the 19th-century domestic melodrama, this first novel from Scottish author Fleming has plenty of panache, but little punch. In 1788, Edward Horne, an eccentric, jocular young man, is persuaded by his ailing mother to leave the excitements of London and return to manage Winterbourne, his family's crumbling rural estate. Upon his arrival, his almost ridiculously pastoral hometown is sent into a minor frenzy of gossip and speculation. Edward is soon befriended by a wealthy landowner, Sir Anthony Apreece, whose avuncular charm conceals an insatiable rapacity and a killer instinct...