Those who enjoyed Cox's elegantly-wrought homage to the Gothic novel The Meaning of Night - shortlisted for the 2006 Costa First Novel Award - will relish this sequel; those who have not yet encountered the author's erudite and intricate fictions have a treat in store. It is 1876, and Esperanza Gorst, a beautiful young woman of limited means and mysterious parentage, arrives at Evenwood, the country seat of the no less beautiful and mysterious Baroness Tansor, to be interviewed for the post of lady's maid. After landing the job, Esperanza gets on with the more important business of making herself indispensable to the woman she has been told she must regard as a sworn enemy.

For Esperanza has been brought up by the enigmatic Madame Orme in the knowledge that she has a great task to fulfil - to reclaim her rightful place in society. This she can do only by bringing about her mistress's downfall. Quite what the connection is between the two women is one of the many secrets that have to be unravelled. Complicating the issue is Esperanza's attraction to Perseus Duport, elder son of Lady Tansor, and as darkly handsome, arrogant and cruel as any devotee of the genre could wish. Will she be able to set aside her feelings for him to pursue her goal? And what of the sinister Armitage Vyse, who seems to have such a hold over Perseus's mother? Does he know more about her ladyship's past than she would prefer?

The answers to these and other questions are revealed only towards the end of this engrossing work. The author of a definitive biography of M.R. James, Cox immerses himself in the language and history of his period, and there are wonderful set-pieces at every turn. This is a mystery worthy of Wilkie Collins, combining all the ingredients of a Gothic romance - disinherited heroines, dissolute heroes, revenge and remorse - with a very modern sense of pace.

The Glass of Time by Michael Cox
John Murray, £17.99; 544pp Buy the book here

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