Bear No Malice

It's 1907, and Canon Thomas Cross—if Cross is even his real name—has some heavy crosses to bear, many of his own making. Outwardly a principled reformer, he secretly has a lover and fights in an illegal club. When he's beaten to near death and dumped in the countryside, he's cared for by Simon Thorne and his sister Miranda, a skilled but reclusive painter who harbors plenty of her own secrets and sorrows. Through a complex series of circumstances, Tom and Miranda struggle to understand each other—and to reveal themselves. Tom comes to love Miranda, but he's afraid to express it when he feels burdened with past lust, blood guilt, and memories of a drunken father. Harwood's novel successfully explores human culpability, despite one aspect of Tom's transgressions never being fully addressed. Readers may recognize Tom's character from the author's debut novel, Impossible Saints, but this new work can stand alone.