No Such Thing as Duty
Lara Elena Donnelly2025

In the waning days of World War One, William Somerset Maugham—novelist, playwright, and spy—is sent to Romania to serve allied interests in the fight against Austro-Hungary while dying of tuberculosis. His handler sets him to recruit mysterious Carpathian nobleman Walter Ro?u to the cause. But Ro?u is more interested in William than the war, and William struggles to fulfill his duty in the face of death and desire.