The newly married and youthful Mrs Constance Baird feels like her life is only just beginning as she sets sail to join her husband, a famous American missionary, in Peking, China.

She is desperately excited to explore not only the foreign land with all its alien culture but also the role of a wife and all the pleasures that come with it…

In no time at all Constance is shocked on both accounts. China stuns her with its barbaric and improper behaviour which, almost against her will, begins to tease her imagination. At the same time, Mr Henry Baird, despairing of his sinful desires, proves unable to indulge Constance’s wishes.

The marriage, failing from the beginning, spirals further and further out of control as Constance, aided by her only ally Kate, inadvertently becomes a famous ‘Devil Woman’ throughout the region and faces an audience with the Empress herself.

As her new life unfolds, Constance finds herself tortured by desire, teetering on the edge of love and caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of international politics.

She ricochets between the Chinese extremes of complete intimacy and deadly violence as they head slowly into war.

What does ‘The Crimson Pagoda’ promise?

‘The Crimson Pagoda’ is a gripping and engaging historical romance by a master of the genre.

Praise for Christopher Nicole:

‘Well-researched…Evocative descriptions of scenery and edifices, and exact period dialogue’ – Historical Novels Society

Christopher Nicole was born and brought up in British Guyana and the West Indies. His output of books has been prolific and many of his novels are historical with a Caribbean background.