This book is written as a series of tell-all vignettes confessing the TRUE nature of the partnership between renown occultist Simon Feximal and his journalist-cum-paranormalist Robert Caldwell. The setting is 1890s London and men are not allowed, legally, to have sexual relations with each other. (But boy-howdy, do they!) 
 They meet because Robert has a ghost inhabiting his ancestral home. He calls out Simon, who has the ability to communicate with spirits, by means of writings that etch across his skin, when he is in the presence of a ghost. It is horrifying and fascinating to Robert, and the manner of expulsion of his ancestral ghost is sexy-sexy. This was actually so fascinating to read. It could have gone campy, but it never did. 
 Each chapter is a case; all of them have some heat between Simon and Robert, mostly as a way for Simon to disgorge the coldness that saps him while communing with spirits. I honestly could not get enough of this couple. There could have been a hundred chapters and I'd have continued turning the pages. There are little threads woven in the stories which connect one to the next, but each is unique and interesting while building on the developing love story between these two men. 
 I won't say this is tender, because it isn't. There is tenderness at times, but often it's harsh and necessary couplings. The desperation they both experience, amid life-and-death encounters kept me captivated. THere is incredible tenderness in their small gestures--the ones which need to be hidden to protect them both. Political machinations, revenge plots, destruction, self-sacrifice--it's all in here. The journal-style of the writing allows an intimate look into Robert's side of the story and he's just a dream of an MC. He so adores Simon that it's impossible not to love Simon through Robert's POV. 
 I adored the historical setting, and the old-style British grammar and spellings. I felt like I was there, as gorgeously and clearly as the settings were described. Nothing like a good ghost story--and this book is chock full of good ones. 
 I received a review copy of this book via NetGalley.