An unashamedly large and intricate tale that starts with thirteen characters relating their commingled stories to a thirteenth but which goes on to draw in more characters and their various mysteries. A conspiracy and a counter-conspiracy as a group of men try to make sense of strange and inexplicable goings-on which seem to implicate them in shady activity. Where has the young prospector vanished to? Why did the whore try to kill herself? Where did the gold in the dead hermit's cabin come from? In the frontier New Zealand gold-rush town of Hokitika there is little certainty and less clarity but there is certainly skullduggery afoot.

Catton's tale is long and full of character and incident, a mystery story and a love story and story of injustice and oppression. Big, bold, immersive and intriguing.