It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the West Coast goldfields of New Zealand. On the night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous sum of money has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky. In this breathtaking feat of storytelling-the winner of the Man Booker Prize-everything is connected, but nothing is as it seems.
