This is the third book (in a series of four) that was begun in A Princess of Roumania and it's only getting stranger. In fact, this is one of the strangest plots I've come across in some time. In this outing, Miranda learns more about the mysterious hidden world which seems to be populated by people's animal spirits. And the Baroness Ceausescu must be half-crazy and a cold-hearted bitch besides. She's such an odd character with a weird appeal to various men around her. Some of the stranger developments concern Miranda's friend Andromeda who is really Lieutenant Sasha Prochenko in Roumania. Prochenko seems to vacillate between three modes of existence and not always mutually exclusive. He's both a he (Sasha), a she (Andromeda), and at times, a dog. Or a furry he-she. Strangeness abounds. The Hidden World is the next book.