A Restless Truth

There’s murder, mystery, and magic on the high seas in Marske’s historical fantasy romp that follows on the heels of last year’s A Marvellous Light. The truth that Maud Blyth finds aboard the RMS Lyric is that her life can be just as sinfully dangerous and daring as her brother Robin’s as she teams up with a beautiful actress, a conniving salesman, a scandalous aristocrat, and a profane parrot. Their mission? Ferret out which of the ship’s many passengers is a magician hell-bent on enslaving all of England’s magical community and forcing them to fight on England’s side during the coming war. Maud starts out just wanting to help her brother, but as she’s chased through the ship by mages, scandals, and an entire menagerie of shipboard animals, she finds both the love she’s always denied as well as the true measure of all her surprising talents. The champagne-soaked alternate Edwardian universe of “The Last Binding” series is expanded by Marske’s setting this second chapter aboard a ship where everyone seems to be hiding behind a mask of their own making.