The Portland Deck

Malcolm Sitter, an arrogant young right wing Christian, member of a very conservative sect, manages to recruit an up and coming gay activist, Cyril Baughan to his cause, and convert him to Catholicism to boot, by manipulating him over his loneliness. Cyril's complete reversal is a feather in Malcolm's cap and Cyril proves an enthusiastic and invaluable asset to his side.

Malcolm finds he has a strange psychic connection with Cyril that neither of them can explain.

Malcolm soon comes to realise that the ostensibly religious organisation he belongs to, the Advent Chapel, is the front for a sinister scheme and that he has been played just as much as Cyril has and that he doesn't really know who anyone really is, including himself.

Malcolm and Cyril develop a real friendship and eventually fall in love. But they also discover they are the losers in a war that they never even knew about and that they are about to become enmeshed in a plot involving dark magic and political intrigue.

And what is the secret of the Portland Deck and the curse attached to it by Thomas Halyard?