A Restless Truth cover art

A Restless Truth

A magical, sapphic locked-room murder mystery

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Restless Truth

By: Freya Marske
Narrated by: Aysha Kala
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Knives Out meets The Binding in this historical romp full of magic, queer romance and adventure. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske is the thrilling follow-up to A Marvellous Light.

'It's the lesbian locked-room murder mystery of my dreams. Beyond delightful!' - Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She’d hoped for plenty of it when she agreed to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy. She even volunteered to serve as an old lady's companion on an ocean liner. But Maud didn't expect the old lady to turn up dead on the very first day of the voyage.

Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham. Violet is everything Maud has been trained to distrust, yet can’t help but desire: a magician, an actress and a magnet for scandal.

Surrounded by open sea and a ship full of suspects, Maud and Violet must learn to drop the masks they’ve learned to wear. Only then might they work together to locate a magical object worth killing for – and unmask a murderer. All without becoming dead in the water themselves.

Set in an alternative Edwardian England filled with magic, murder and romance, A Restless Truth is the spellbinding second book in The Last Binding trilogy by Freya Marske.

Continue the series with A Power Unbound.

20th Century Fantasy Historical Mystery Romance Exciting

Continue the series

A Power Unbound cover art
A Power Unbound By: Freya Marske

Critic Reviews

A Restless Truth is a delectable sapphic fantasy-adventure on the high seas. Maud and Violet stole my heart from page one. Never has the term 'to ship' been more appropriate (Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy)
Jaw-droppingly fantastic. Anyone who's ever hoped that the Miss Phryne Fisher Mysteries had a bit more magic and a lot more sex is going to adore this book, which doesn't skimp on either. Add to that fantastic, thoroughly captivating characters, a deeply engaging story and divinely lyrical prose. In a word: delightful (Jenn Lyons, author of The Ruin of Kings)
The perfect book if you're looking for oceanbound queer shenanigans, suspense in a coherently magical world, or opulent historical fiction! (Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes)
A magical world of exquisite refinement, where peril skims beneath manners, interiors bespeak both faultless taste and deadly secrets, and the sexual tension crescendos until it literally makes sparks fly. A dazzling debut (Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun,on A Marvellous Light)
A breathtaking queer romantic fantasy . . . Sensual erotic scenes, an intriguing magic system, and a puzzling mystery combine to make this novel a wonder (Publishers Weekly starred review on A Marvellous Light)
Mystery! Magic! Murder! . . . This book is a confection, both marvellous and light (Alix E. Harrow, author of Starling House on A Marvellous Light)
All stars
Most relevant
Some of the best narration I've heard in an audio book for a long time. Lots of different accents really allowed me to identify the characters and picture them. Love the balance of magic with murder mystery. Highly recommend

A wonderful story with complex characters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was a breeze to read. A fun, magical closed-room murder mystery, replete with plenty of shenanigans and Edwardian fashion & golden-age-of-ocean-liners period charm.

A delightful romp

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.