In 1852 Richard Francis Burton, the legendary explorer and author, fell in love with a Persian woman while in the British Army. When her parents discovered the affair, they poisoned her. Devastated and vulnerable, Burton camped out in an opium den. But the British spymaster, Hodgson, needed Burton and his unique talents for a mission: pose as a Muslim on the Hajj, and when it’s over, steal a woman from a harem in Medina. Burton knew myriad languages. He could duel and shoot and ride. And most of all he needed Hodgson because Burton had an unquenchable thirst for risk-taking.

 

Hallucinatory twists followed and Burton’s life turned into a tale of adventure and romance worthy of the Arabian Nights. “The Mirrored Palace” is a spy story – romantic and swashbuckling, harrowing and tragic – based on Burton's life, and utilizing his own published account of his Hajj. At the same time, it is a literary adventure, a narrative puzzle cleverly shuffled by Hodgson, haunted by his betrayal of Burton. Whose version, Burton's or Hodgson's, is closer to the truth?