Women did marvellous, exceptional things. Even when I read about them living long ago, even if they are now ghosts, I feel them beckon.
When Inspector Queberon — a policeman who has laid many an ignoramus in his grave — meets the academic Elizabeth Hammerstein in the charming landscape gardens of Dessau, the repercussions and reverberations are felt by the resident cats, cooks, crooks and beyond. Not to mention the ghosts of Louise von Anhalt-Dessau and Henriette von Lippe-Weisenfels whose diaries and letters chart a life-sustaining friendship. An alliance Elizabeth is determined to give its rightful significance before her fellow academics — whatever the cost.
Elizabeth looked up at the trailing clouds in the window, giant sailing albatrosses to the freshening west wind. “Cloud-catcher. Dream-catcher,” she murmured, “that is what I am.”
An unforgettable meld of crime fiction, humour, the supernatural and historical fact set in Germany's beautifully preserved Dessau-Woerlitz landscape gardens.
