Gordon Dahlquist The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

Gordon Dahlquist

Bantam, Aug 2006, $26.00

ISBN: 0385340354

The note on Ministry paper from her fianc Roger Bascombe simply said that his engagement to Celeste Temple is terminated. Not upset over the abrupt ending of their engagement or even his cowardly cruel method of delivering, twenty-five years old Miss Temple simply needs to know why. She decides to find out first hand.

Leaving her island paradise, Miss Temple travels to London to learn the truth. Disguising herself she serendipitously trails Roger from the foreign ministry to Harschmort House. The curiously intrepid visitor sneaks inside the stately mansion only to find odd goings-on especially at the theater in which Miss Temple sits in the audience apparently enjoying erotic acts performed on stage. Before Miss Temple knows what is happening, she gets involved in a masked tryst with voyeurs looking through mirrors at her while she looks back at their depravity. Miss Temple flees the chambers of sex but not before she kills a thug trying to prevent her escape. Those inside want her stopped while she finds aid from two men assassin Cardinal Chang and diplomat Abelard Svenson, who want to rescue abducted females from this den of iniquity with dreams of world domination starting with local sexual sacrifices.

This is a wild over the top but fun Victorian thriller that never slows down from the moment that Miss Temple receives the letter and has an itch to learn why, but discovers much more than just the reason for her dumping. The story line in some ways is a coming of age tale though the heroine is twenty-five and her lessons are in debauchee, religious-sexual ceremonies, and rites of passage. With too many characters coming (figuratively and literally) and going, the story line can get difficult to follow, but worth the time as Miss Temple battles a depraved cabal preparing to conquer the world.

Harriet Klausner