2020/011: One Night in Boukos -- A J Demas

"He did it for a lark. He thought it would be fun... The night before, he was really having a good time. He’d got to do all sorts of things a respectable man can’t do in Zash, and he thought it was spectacular. He liked mingling with the locals—he thought everyone in Boukos was just wildly quaint and fabulous in a sort of barbarian way." [loc. 2756]

The Ambassador from Zash has gone missing in Boukos after a night of debauchery cementing diplomatic ties. So far, the only two people who know he didn't come home are the captain of his guard, Marzana, and his eunuch secretary Bedar. Can they find the Ambassador in time for the trade deals to be concluded? And will the fact that it's the night of the Psobion, a religious festival dedicated to sex and decadence, interfere with their investigations?

Another cheerful secondary-world pseudohistorical from A J Demas. I didn't adore this quite as much as Sword Dance, but that might be because it's as much a crime novel as a romance: also, there are two romances, one heterosexual and one not, but neither is a case of wild passion. The Zashians apparently say that one 'catches' love, like an illness: the infections depicted here seem mild and gentle, head colds rather than high fever, though no less sincere and cheering.

A lot of the charm of this novel is in Marzana's and Bedar's experiences of culture shock, as they come to terms with the sheer foreignness of Boukos. (Horned Beasts everywhere! Megaphallic marionettes! Unwatered wine!) The secondary characters, the widow Chereia and the prostitute Pheres, are also thoroughly delightful -- we come to know them as our protagonists do, gradually but intimately and with a real appreciation of their characters, strengths, and vulnerabilities.

And happy endings for nearly everyone involved. Win!