A World Possessed — Joanna O'Neill

"What am I doing here? I always said I'd never do this. Why am I doing this?" On New Year's Day, outside the Royal Festival Hall where she is enjoying an innocent holiday among the buskers and street performers, Rebecca receives the first message, slipped into her pocket by sleight of hand while she is unaware. And so the riddle begins. From London's South Bank to the Colleges of Oxford, from a hotel in the Peak District to her beautiful home on the Isle of Skye, Rebecca cannot evade the questions that hurtle at her thick and fast. How many ways can you use a knife? Where did Shakespeare meet his Dark Lady? What is the point of a telescope with polarised lenses? Are foxes heroes or villains? And above all who, or what, is the Jack of Hearts? As the significance of the messages emerges, Rebecca comes to realise that her path was laid long ago and the time is coming when she must tread it.