1807, Cambridge, England.
A young woman is murdered in a boarding house, and nobody knows what to do about it. The volunteer watchman who patrols the streets of this placid college town has no idea how to investigate a serious crime and the private bounty hunters the girl's family has hired to catch the killer employ methods that are questionable, at best.
What Cambridge needs is a hero, and, in a situation such as this, it's very easy for a gentleman with a romantic disposition to mistake himself for one.
19 year-old Lord Byron, the outlaw poet, is a student at Trinity College, though he can only be described as a "student" in the loosest sense of the word: He rarely attends class and, instead, spends his time day-drinking, making love to faculty wives, and feeding fine cuisine and expensive wine to the bear he keeps as a pet.
Catching a killer seems like a fine diversion, however, and Byron decides that solving the crime must take precedence over other, less-urgent matters such as his failing grades and mounting debts.
And it's pretty good:
"Besides adroitly placing the major plot twists, Friedman manages to make one of the most obnoxious leads in recent memory oddly endearing and even sympathetic." - Publishers Weekly
"100 percent swagger... Inspired, hilarious lunacy" - Library Journal
"Even though the crime is grisly and Byron’s debauchery distinctly wanton, Friedman laces the narrative with comic moments, wry observations on noble privilege, and excellent plot turns." -Booklist
"you’ll find yourself intrigued and then committed to Friedman’s lavish, over-the-top plot and larger-than-life characters." -BookPage
Go buy it!
