by Karen Engelmann
The Stockholm Octavo is the story of Emil Larsson, a self-satisfied
bureaucrat and devoted card shark living in Sweden’s capitol city in
1791. Gaming house owner Mrs. Sofia Sparrow draws Emil into laying his
OCTAVO, a form of fortunetelling with playing cards that reveals eight
people surrounding a significant event in his life. Emil can influence
the outcome of this event in his favor —
IF he can find his eight in time.
∞
Emil believes the Octavo will lead him to comfort
and ease in a convenient marriage, but as the eight appear, the event at
the center of his Octavo expands to include him in an assassination
plot against King Gustav III — and a chance to change history. The
Stockholm Octavo combines politics, cartomancy, ambition and folding
fans into a heady fantasy with a historical core. - Karen Engelmann
