The author of last year's cult bridge classic, Samurai Bridge, returns with another bridge novel, this time set in 17th century France. Through the medium of fictional bridge games, we see the politics and intrigue of the French court play out, and follow Cardinal Richelieu's career as he becomes the queen's confidant and the real power behind the throne. Again in MacKinnon's second novel, the bridge is deftly woven into the everyday life of the culture we are observing, so that it seems to take its natural place in the development of character and events. Nobles rise and fall in court favour, fortunes are made and lost, and life and death affairs are planned and executed, all between the bids and plays of the most deadly and mannered bridge games imaginable.