Bluebeard's Seventh Door

Set in Canada and post-war Yugoslavia, Bluebeard's Seventh Door begins with the celebrity funeral of Marie, the "Femme Fatale" of Westmount. The funeral is attended by a sensation-hungry crowd because the cause of death is suicide. Among the crowd is the novel's main character, a womanizing musicologist. Conspicuously absent is Marie's maid, Karin, an illegal immigrant who, like Scheherazade, has entertained the musicologist with sex and horror stories of World War II retributions.

The novel...