Valete de Copas e Dama de Espadas

Henry Paul Chester is a Victorian artist whose past hides a terrible secret that has left deep scars on himself and his art. His obsession with painting young, "innocent" girls leads him to Effie, a nine-year-old girl, whom he begins to use as a model. Ten years later, Chester and Effie marry, and it is precisely at this moment that their relationship sours. Effie then seeks solace with Chester's rival, the unscrupulous Moses Zachary Harper. But it will not be him who comforts her, but rather Fanny Miller, the owner of a brothel, who sees in sweet Effie the daughter murdered ten years before. Together they try to unravel Chester's dark past and devise a sinister plan to expose him. But the use of magic always carries the danger of the occult… The Victorians are famous for having constructed the concept of childhood as we understand it today. In her characteristic provocative style, Joanne Harris describes how some of these same Victorians perverted their own creation.