A.J. Hall: Queen's Gambit

Queen's Gambit is the fourth in a series of Queen of Gondal ebooks by the author A.J. Hall. You might like to refer to their suggested reading order & more detailed series information. It is a quasi-historical AU of the BBC Sherlock series set (more-or-less) in three fantasy kingdoms devised by the Bronte children.

From the shore at Aulis to the palace in Gaaldine, to be a princess is to be a sacrifice.

In a remote country residence Master Ripley, a physician famed for his knowledge of frenzy and melancholia, tends a distraught woman broken by the ruthless dynastic politics of her House. The unexpected arrival of her kinsman the Crown Prince is a catalyst which forces Ridley to recognise the brooding evil at the root of his patient’s malady, a curse which has poisoned the lives of four generations and which sits so close to the Crown that treason itself ceases to be a relevant consideration.

Meanwhile, death, fire and destruction creep inland from the sea, and the wind is changing...