"...this is an adventure tale that will keep most readers interested, particularly the ladies. It has about everything: fratricide, foster sons, slaves, nobility, brutality, perversion, hatred, love, lust, sadism, horror. One might even identify a bit of Hamlet, Cleopatra, Orestes and Charles Dickens, if one looked hard enough. And all this against a setting of deep South swampland... Dan, an orphan, is adopted by Professor Reed, a lame musician, when he is eight, and the two engage in a strange pact, which binds Dan to avenge the death of one of the Professor's brothers. It is assumed that his death was caused by Ralph, the professor's other brother and landowner of Wood Ibis, a Southern Plantation. When he is of age, Dan comes to Wood Ibis to investigate causes, to probe into past histories, and to convict the murderer... Heinous crimes and the motivations behind them worked out in skillful jigsaw puzzle fashion, make this a swift and often fascinating horror tale."—Kirkus Reviews.