The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

Sun-Sentinel
    “It’s a rare writer who can string so many words together and still be entertaining.… Dahlquist’s fine attention to detail, colorful cast of characters and generous spattering of well-written erotica serve to keep the right brain imaginatively excited while the left brain is kept busy tracking cat-and-mouse chase scenes.… It’s all very ingenious.”
    —
Richmond Times-Dispatch
    “An engaging work for lovers of over-the-top Victorian suspense and intrigue.”
    —
Library Journal
    “Readers will be eagerly turning the pages to discover just what happens to the intrepid trio (Miss Temple, Cardinal Chang, and Dr. Svenson)—and how those enthralling glass books get their power.”
    —
BookPage
    “The most notable thing about
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
is the sheer brio of its erotic inventiveness.… Reading this book—and it is a page-turner—you become immersed, befogged, almost as if you had indeed been looking at one of the glass books.… As stupendous as it is stupefying,
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
transcends its flaws.”
    —
Guardian
    “An erotically charged, rip-roaring adventure for adults with scarcely a dull moment to be had, which defies its great length to keep the reader on the edge of his seat.”
    —
Daily Mail
    “Bodice-ripping.”
    —
Elle
(UK)
    “An outrageously good novel; a gripping gothic roller-coaster of a book … A rip-roaring read. It ends perfectly, poised between cliff-hangers and closure.…
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters
has the feel of a classic in the making.”
    —
Scotland on Sunday
    “Extraordinary. An undoubted feat of literary imagination. I cannot recall ever having read a novel comprising so much breaking and entering, spying through keyholes, jumping over walls, hiding in shadows, and listening out for footsteps, nor one with so many miraculous escapes.”
    —
Daily Telegraph
    “A vivid fantasy, liberally spiced with chases, stakeouts, fights, fetish gear, exotic foreign names and a satisfyingly long trail of bodies.”
    —
Herald
    “An undoubted feat of literary imagination.”
    —
Telegraph
    “A Dickens of a plot.”
    —
Evening Standard
    “Churns with adrenaline and leaves us suspended over a gulf of anxiety for the characters’ fates.”
    —
Time Out
(London)
    “Think of
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
its lurid plots, its murky pea-soupers. Now, apply the production values of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
, commission a rewrite by the Marquis de Sade—oh, and lose Sherlock and replace him with Barbarella.… it’s literally a ripping yarn.”
    —
London Paper
    “The three heroes, wonderful. The premise, the glass books—excellent idea! Really fabulous.”
    —
Books in Bed
(UK)
    “Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe and Alexandre Dumas with shades of Kubrick’s
Eyes Wide Shut
thrown in.”
    —
Irish News
    “From the first few lines, the slick plot has you utterly hooked. What follows is a tumultuous adventure … a vastly enjoyable page-turner of epic proportions.”
    —
Big Issue
    “Bodice-ripping, adventure-packed.”
    —
Financial Times
    “Wilkie Collins on acid.”
    —
New Statesman



THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS, VOLUME TWO
A Bantam Book
    PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition of Volumes One and Two published September 2006
Bantam trade paperback edition / February 2009
    Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
    All rights reserved
Copyright © 2006 by Gordon Dahlquist
    Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006040740
    Bantam Books and the Rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
    eISBN: 978-0-307-75556-8
    www.bantamdell.com
    v3.1

ONE
Royale
    O nce she made a decision, Miss Temple considered it an absolutely ridiculous waste of time to examine the choice further—and so from the vantage of her coach she did not debate the merits of her journey to the St. Royale Hotel, instead allowing herself the calming pleasure of watching the shops pass by to either side and the people of the city all about their day. Normally, this was not a thing she cared for—save for a certain morbid curiosity about what flaws could be deduced from a person’s dress and