Wilson reprises translator-sleuth Cassandra Reilly, whose first outing, "Gaudi Afternoon" (1990), proved a prize-winner. This time, en route to China, the witty world traveler detours to post-Communist Transylvania, where Romanian and Hungarian factions vie to control an area whose principal attraction is a deteriorating health spa. Called to assist feisty septuagenarian Gladys Bentwhistle, who is being investigated in connection with the electrocution of the spa's hated, lecherous director, Cass is teasingly drawn to Gladys' very pale, toothsome (big canines) granddaughter. Meanwhile, she also translates for an American family searching for its adopted child's Romanian mother, which leads to one of the funniest scenes, a malapropian conversation with the mother. Along with its humor and mystery, the novel treats us to dollops of Romanian political history, including sidereal excursions on such topics as abortion under the Communists, cold war black market babies, the principles of electricity, and the history of vampires. The book obviously has quite an agenda, but Wilson--an award-winning translator and publisher as well as novelist--is equal to its demands.

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