Two 19th century stage illusionists, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and the work
ing-class Alfred Borden, engage in a bitter and deadly feud; the effects are sti
ll being felt by their respective families a hundred years later. Working in the
gaslight-and-velvet world of Victorian music halls, they prowl edgily in the ba
ckground of each other's shadowy life, driven to the extremes by a deadly combin
ation of obsessive secrecy and insatiable curiosity. At the heart of the row is
an amazing illusion they both perform during their stage acts.
The secret of
the magic is simple, and the reader is in on it almost from the start, but to th
e antagonists the real mystery lies deeper. Both have something more to hide tha
n the mere workings of a trick.
