Marionette and the Maestro, The

A toy maker disposes of a body in a novel way. A miller stumbles on a pigment that others will die for. A puppeteer and a music student set about writing an opera. A cobbler is magically transformed by a pair of ballroom slippers. A pawnbroker engages an assistant who is not all that she appears. A taxidermist's life is endangered when he embalms the archbishop.

Set throughout Europe from the fin-de-siècle to the early 20th century, these tales of murder, trickery, magic and transformation take us from the Opera House in Vienna to a puppet theatre in Prague, and from a crypt in Palermo to a palace in St. Petersburg. From fairytales to nightmares these stories engross, unsettle and celebrate the (sometimes) dark arts.