In their third winning adventure (after Thirteenth Night
and Jester Leaps In), those renegades from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Feste the Fool and his wife, Aglaia (aka Viola), are in Constantinople on a mission: to keep a finger on the pulse of Byzantium and, working behind the scenes, to promote peace as the Fourth Crusade threatens the city. Their aims mesh well with those of Philoxenites, the emperor's spymaster, who wishes to preserve the empire (and his own power) at all costs. Philoxenites sends Feste to the virtually autonomous Venetian quarter to make an unofficial investigation into the death of Bastiani, an obscure silk merchant, who was Philoxenites' "principle informant" and a "possible conduit" to the Venetian fleet. That the Venetian fleet has just brought the crusaders to the city walls seems more than a coincidence. Gordon weaves a complex plot full of veiled motives and strained family loyalties with honesty in short supply. Feste narrates most chapters, and his "eyewitness" viewpoint lends a sense of urgency as Constantinople's residents prepare for the siege that may or may not come. Aglaia occasionally takes up the pen to describe events back at the emperor's palace, but since she writes with the same voice as her husband, those readers who don't stop at the end of each chapter can get confused. This sameness of tone, however, is a minor flaw in a book that should please existing devotees and newcomers alike. (Mar. 18)
