This novel, the fourth of the author's Ted Born Classic Courtroom Trials
associate reveals she has seen a dark, mysterious dream vision about Constance that foretells her tragic demise. Constance hires Ted Born to help her get compensated for the loss, and Ted successfully represents her, though he and Constance both know the former associate has limited ability to pay the true damages she has caused. Thus, crippled financially at the beginning and lacking the personal participation of her former key associate, Constance's enterprise fails to achieve its goals, and the financial situation gets progressively worse. Constance's husband is not supportive of Constance during her difficult times, going from indifference to criticism to hostility and infidelity. Constance continues throughout the story to seek Born's advice series, follows talented Constance Stanfield, young mother of two beautiful children, in her effort to expand the appreciation of beautiful lace, and delicate hand sewing and embroidery within her community and beyond. Steeped in her love of ancient Greek culture, Constance lives in a Greek Revival columned home at what she calls Helicon Heights, commemorating Mt. Helicon in Greece where the winged horse Pegasus touched down and caused springs of water to gush up, which the Muses regarded as sacred - Muses who shared their love of beauty with humanity. Pegasus tried to fly up to Mt. Olympus but never made it and later became the custodian of Zeus' lightning bolts and eventually a constellation.
Constance had a crucially important associate in her lace enterprise who abruptly abandons the deal after Constance has sunk a lot of borrowed money in it. After much resistance to explaining why she abandoned Constance, the about problems she faces, both corporate and personal, and their communications provide critical parts of the plot. At one point, Constance tries to salvage her business through an arrangement with a startup venture featuring synthetic or simulated lace, but that initiative proves to be of limited help in the long run.
The author lays bare the innermost feelings and thoughts of Constance and the other characters via you-are-there insights provided by dialogue and by their verbatim mental reflections. Mostly, there is sympathy for and empathy with Constance, but the legitimate concerns of her husband and others in the narrative are also treated objectively, and their characters become understandable and relatable.
As Constance's circumstances get more desperate, she resorts to a mix of alcohol and pain pills, and finally to unbelievable other measures to deal with her depression, which at times will evoke horror and a variety of emotions.
There are ambiguities surrounding the death of Constance, whether it was murder or suicide. It will be up to the reader to resolve this ambiguity based on all the events and clues leading up to the demise of Constance. This novel is somewhat different from the author's previous novels, in that the most suspenseful moments occur after the end of the lone trial in the story, but no trial could be more gripping and horrifying than the events toward the end.
