Not betrothed, but beguiled

In artistic circles she is the Divine Dita, Paris's most sought-after nude model. But now she's not so much posing as playing a role: fiancée to the next earl of Athal. The charade is a favor to Dita's friend, Eddie Jago, a dissolute painter-and the aforementioned heir. As deceptions go, it is innocent compared to what will come.

On the grim Cornish coast, from the ashes of a ruined castle rises the Jagos' sumptuous new manor house. The fresh-hewn stone, however, cannot absorb the blood of centuries or quiet the echoes of past crimes. Dita struggles to decipher the family: the infirm earl and his inscrutable wife; resentful Eddie; sheltered sister Eleanor. And Cad: the handsome second son whose reputation is spotless in business—scandalous everywhere else.

Drawn by friendship, ensnared by lust, Dita uncovers a sordid tangle of murder, desire and madness. It will lay her bare as no portraitist has done before.