This beautifully written, immersive, and unique crime story is a tête-bêche novel. At the book’s core are two separate mysteries running across two different converging timelines, which are inextricably, forever linked.
1880s, Essex, England: Idealistic young doctor Simeon Lee is called from London to treat his ailing relative Parson Oliver Hawes, who lives in Turnglass House on a bleak island off the coast. Hawes believes he’s being poisoned by his sister-in-law, Florence, who was declared mad years ago after killing the parson’s brother in a jealous rage. Hawes keeps her locked in a glass-walled apartment in the Turnglass library; the secret to how she came to be there is found in his tête-bêche journal, where one side tells a very different story from the other.
1930s, Hollywood: Celebrated author Oliver Tooke, the governor’s son, is found dead by apparent suicide. His aspiring actor friend Ken Kourian isn’t so sure Oliver took his own life. He finds a link between Oliver’s death and the mysterious kidnapping of Oliver’s brother when they were children. He also discovers the secret incarceration of Oliver’s mother, Florence, in an asylum. To get to the truth, Ken must decipher clues hidden in Oliver’s final book, a tête-bêche novel called
The Turnglass—which is about a young doctor named Simeon Lee . . .
About the author
Gareth Rubin
writes about social affairs, travel, and the arts for British newspapers. In 2013, he directed a documentary about therapeutic art at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London (Bedlam). His books include
The Great Cat Massacre, which details how the course of British history has been changed by people making mistakes;
Liberation Square, a thriller set in Soviet-occupied London; and
The Winter Agent, a thriller set in Paris in 1944. He lives in London.
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