This first volume in the collected fictions of Kurt Steiner contains two misadventures featuring unwitting Europeans who take the eye of assertive and powerful subcontinent women and find their lives spiralling out-of-control. The first of our two interludes of horror and human bondage is “A journey to Disgrace” and the tale of a wealthy and recently divorced man, during the early years of the twentieth-century who takes a voyage to the East to put his cares behind him… Only to find he has placed himself directly in the firing line of far worse when he encounters an Indian mother and her stepdaughter among his fellow passengers… A beauteous and dominant mother and a stepdaughter who, though falling a long way from the description of “beautiful”, is at least the mother’s equal when it comes to assertiveness. Mr Steiner’s second misadventure, “Rune of Evil”, features the downfall of a visiting English professor at Madras University who takes the eye of a secretive and centuries old Madras-based sect… A sect comprised of local Indian females and presided over by a venerable “Pātiriyār” acting as the conduit to the vengeful and sadistic female demon who will reward her devotees worship of her by giving them power over the men of their choice… And, especially when it comes to the handsome visiting professor from another land! Kurt Steiner is a writer based in Falmouth on Cornwall’s south-coast and is the author of the female-led classics, “The Inferior” and “Serving Sreelatha”.