When Sandor snatched little Joe from the path of a London Tube train, he was quick to make clear the terms of the rescue. ‘I saved your life,’ he told the homeless youngster, ‘so your life belongs to me now’.

Sandor began to tell him a fairy-tale- an ageing prince, a kidnapped princess chained by one ankle, a missed rendezvous. But what did this mysterious story have to do with Sandor’s preparations? Joe had only understood his own role- he was a gallowglass, the servant of a Chief…

‘On one level this is a novel about kidnapping. On another its concerns are obsession, the destructive nature of romantic illusions, and love. As Ms Vine unfolds it nothing is quite what it seems’ Guardian.