Michael Irwin´s The Skull and the Nightingale is a chilling and deliciously dark, literary novel of manipulation and sex, intrigue and seduction, set in 18th-century England. When Richard Fenwick returns to London, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a sedate life in Worcestershire, but feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling: love, passion, and something much more sinister. It becomes apparent that Gilbert desires news filled with tales of carousing, flirtation, excess, and London´s more salacious side. But Gilbert´s elaborate and manipulative "experiments" into the workings of human behavior soon drag Richard into a Faustian vortex of betrayal and danger where lives are ruined and tragedy is only a step away. With echoes of Dangerous Liaisons, Michael Irwin´s The Skull and the Nightingale is an urgent period drama that seduces the senses.