Start with a trope. Turn it on its head. Follow an established storyline. Blow it up right when you know what’s happening. Turn left. Turn left. TURN LEFT. That’s this book. A con-man, a madman, and a wild young girl start off trying to run the biggest con of all, in 15th century Holland. Things go wrong. Then things turn left. A lot. This novel is at turns laugh-out-loud funny and deeply mysterious, before becoming political drama and taking rather serious pains to avoid following established lines too far. An ambitious work that delivers on its promise, and then some.