Ahoy there mateys! This novel was described as "Le Carré meets Cabaret in this debut spy thriller as a gay double-agent schemes to protect his smuggler lover during the rise of a fascist government coup."  I actually liked this book despite some problems with it.  Most of the problems stem from the "Le Carré" description.  I thought the spy thriller was going to be full of daring-do.  I didn't know that Le Carré's work is described as "unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged more in psychological than physical drama." source  Because the main character, master spy Cyril DePaul, was a horrible spy.  The spy stuff sucked and there was no thriller aspects.  The characters were interesting if absolute disasters.  Cordelia Lehane was awesome and despicable.  I loved the life around the nightclub, called the Bee, the best.  The other problem was that the world building was based on the Weimar Republic and I couldn't get me head out of the parallels even if this was supposed to be an alternate world.  It didn't feel alternate enough.  The writing was lovely though.  I am glad I read this one even if I didn't love it enough to read the sequels.  I am willing to read something else by the author in the future. Arrrr!