David Gordon is in love and engaged to be married to Kate Nugent, a woman who is the one real thing on his journey through a world of shadows . But the sinister figure of Austen Hawke, Gordon s rival, threatens to eclipse the wedding and wreck Gordon s one chance of true happiness. And when David Gordon witnesses Kate and the iniquitous Hawke kissing one night, his heart is broken. Is Kate betraying him or is Hawke manipulating both David Gordon and his fiancee for his own wicked ends? A E W Mason s first published novel tells a vintage love story and a tale of blackmail."