An enigmatic faith healer - who appears to possess genuine magical powers - and a political fixer vie for influence over a senator and his family.

A modern-day politician is faced with an incomprehensible in this mystical-fantasy. Senator Rast is a very powerful man. But his is nothing compared to the extraordinary power of the enigmatic stranger who mysteriously comes to "visit" him. Possessing uncanny magical prowess and miraculous psychic abilities, the peculiar, but seemingly benevolent, visitor quickly gains a spell-binding hold over the senator and his family. But a power-lusting political backer is also vying for control over the up-and-coming senator. And he would kill the influential stranger, without question, for that power. But he and the senator are about to be enlightened.—Rone Barton Lokarr <[email protected]>

A tale of how power corrupts, it's also a reworking of the Rasputin story, the Russian monk and faith healer who cared for the dying child of Tsar Nicholas II and wormed his way into the Romanov family only to be assassinated by political opponents. Rasputin was called Grigori, just as the harlequin is called Gregory, and the Hemmings character is called Rast, which spelled backwards reads "Tsar".—bignewshound