In the days before the Civil War in the old French Quarter of New Orleans there lived the GENS DE COULEUR, the Free People of Colour, a fierce and proud people, descended from slaves and their French and Spanish owners, neither Black nor White, but caught between the two - free and yet not free.

'[W]hen I found Rice's work I absolutely loved how she took that genre and (...) made [it] feel so contemporary and relevant' Sarah Pinborough, bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

'[Rice wrote] in the great tradition of the gothic' Ramsey Campbell, bestselling author of The Hungry Moon

In the days before the Civil War in the old French Quarter of New Orleans there lived the GENS DE COULEUR, the Free People of Colour, a fierce and proud people, descended from slaves and their French and Spanish owners, neither Black nor White, but caught between the two - free and yet not free. Among them is Michael, the mesmeric copper-skinned youth, mercurial, attractive, wild: an artist in the making, he dreams of Paris, and the lure of a brand new art, Daguerreotype. His gentle sister Marie longs for love and marriage in a world ready to sell her charms to the highest bidder. And there is Anita Bella, the beautiful young courtesan; and Dolly Rose, the splendid madame; and Christophe, the brilliant young teacher who has returned from Paris with dangerous ideas. The author of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE has written a novel as exotic, exciting, colourful and sensuous as the French Quarter itself.