Of Love and Evil

Toby O'Dare, former government assassin, is summoned by the angel Malchiah to sole a terrible crime of poisoning and to investigate a haunting of a restless spirit - a diabolical dybbuk. They travel back to the Italian Renaissance - the age of Michelangelo, the Holy Inquisition, and Pope Leo X. Malchiah has Toby pose as a lutest sent to charm and calm this troublesome spirit. Toby soon discovers himself in the midst of plots and counter-plots, surrounded by a dangerous threat, as the veil of ecclesiastical terror closes in around him. In the process, Toby is reconnected with his own past, with matters light, dark, fierce and tender, with the promise of salvation, and with deeper vision of love.