Moffat the Magniloquent returns. Events at Gibbous House are over a decade in the past. Penniless, he heads south to St Louis. On murdering one Anson Northrup, Moffat assumes his identity and becomes involved with an Underground Railroad scheme to free slaves and rob the New Orleans Mint. Moffat meets another cast of grotesques and occasional real-life characters, including Marie Laveau, when he gets to New Orleans.
The scheme is complex and involves two riverboats and hiding both the silver and slaves from the authorities and a traitor in the ranks. Moffat learns more of the truth behind his origins, his past and what happened at Gibbous House. Moffat encounters the redoubtable and attractive Miss Pardoner – a woman seemingly unaffected by the passage of time – once again.
Until recently Ewan lived in the south of Spain, inland from the Costa Del Sol, where he used to enjoy an occasional beer in bars where no-one spoke English, at least not to him, in case they ended up in his notebook or somewhere worse. When not doing that he used to write, but occasionally he taught English to Andalucians and other hispanophones.
My thoughts:
After spending ten years roaming the globe, Moffat arrives in America and immediately gets in way over his head. Having stolen yet another identity, he gets involved with the Underground Railroad and several small scams on the Mississippi river boats. He runs into a few old friends, and makes some new enemies.
Gibbous House was a weird Gothic nightmare and this is equally strange and surreal. Moffat appears to just blunder into things and somehow survive, despite some dodgy situations. He even almost becomes a hero in this one, having tried to help some slaves flee the South.
I have absolutely no idea what he’ll end up doing next – founding a colony on a South Pacific island probably, trying to outrun the past and avoid another meeting with Miss Pardoner.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 
Thanks so much for the blog tour support x
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