The Folly of the World

Sander is a madman who enjoys the thrill of being hanged so much that he deliberately commits crimes and gets caught, always escaping the noose at the last moment. His partner, Jan, is working a scam that will net him a fortune if played right—but to succeed he needs the help of Jolanda, a wild young woman with a talent for swimming. This is especially handy now that the Saint Elizabeth Flood of 1421 has drowned much of their native Holland, including the prime element of Jan’s scam. In this wet world where their rendezvous city of Dordrecht has become a walled island, betrayal is a constant fact of life, and the dead don’t always stay that way. Every page is saturated with wickedness and mischief. Bullington’s fans will be happy to see him bring his trademark dark humor, gritty detail, and loopy characters into a new gruesome landscape. Agent: Sally Harding, the Cooke Agency. (Dec.)