Jesse Bullington's latest! With each new book, Bullington's craft improves, honed by a formidably visceral imagination and what is clearly a passion for medieval European history not to mention an affinity for the lowly rogues, cheats and outsiders skulking in the shadows. Folly displays an impressively tight sense of plotting and place. The spooky and damp floodlands of Holland where terrible secrets linger amongst the reed and the mud and the drowned farms.

Jan, the con-man, recruits Jolanda, the swimmer, to recover an item from an underwater mansion. Sander, the burly thug perpetually on the brink of a violent psychotic breakdown, is muscle, if he can keep the schizophrenic paranoia at bay. This is a heist novel, of sorts, and as often occurs in heist novels, surviving the heist, no matter how badly it goes wrong, is a cakewalk when compared to surviving what comes afterwards. And, of course, the biggest danger usually comes from your fellow heisters. That's about as much as I'll say for the plot, as I wouldn't want to give too much away.

Interestingly, Bullington dials back considerably on the supernatural horrors, always front and centre in his previous two books. Such horrors and monstrosities as do appear are ambiguous, and though they provide a growing sense of unease and unreality, they are kept peripheral to the story itself, leaving the reader with much to ponder.

As usual, the characters are skillfully drawn, sympathetic even in their ugly depravity. Sander in particular is a creature of such violence, madness and appalling contradictions, you keep rooting for a redemption you know is impossible. Jan's smooth cruelty and Jolanda's growth from impoverished daughter of a dye-maker to an intelligent, albeit still ferocious young woman are equally strong and engaging.

Excellent.