Headline’s ‘Cremorne’ series of M/F erotic books are similar to the same publisher’s ‘Eros’ series, as each series has a fairly uniform style, within which each book rings changes of plot and (many of the) characters. Both series are very well written, and contain just enough plot to sustain the reader in his search for the particular kind of stimulus that this genre provides. The Cremorne works tend to have rather less plot, but as they are set in the Edwardian era (even to the extent of including the eponymous monarch of the era as a character!) there are many more libidinous individuals, occupying a much wider range of occupations, and encountered in a broader palette of potentially erotic situations, this hardly signifies. The ‘lost instrument’ of this book – a silver, cigar-shaped object whose use will be obvious to aficionados of the genre – is therefore barely significant compared with the welter of situations in which priapic aristocratic males find it necessary to become unclothed in the company of a steady supply of hot-blooded women, from all walks of life, who are equally inclined to disport themselves in the amorous arts. Entertaining, and lives up to the promise of its cover. ( )