Investigating the death of an informer who held vital information about a treasonous plot, Thomas Pitt traces the killer to France while London Special Branch head Victor Narraway discovers that a violent agitator from his past is operating in Ireland.

The horrifying rape and apparent suicide of Catherine Quixwood, wife of a wealthy merchant banker, falls outside the new jurisdiction of Special Branch head Thomas Pitt, but so pervasively offensive are the rumors about the victim that Pitt quietly takes a hand in the investigation. Yet even with the help of his wife, Charlotte, and his former superior, Victor Narraway, Pitt is stumped. Why did high-minded, cultured Catherine choose not to accompany...

HISTORICAL MYSTERIES. In "New York Times" bestselling author Anne Perry, the glorious era when Britain reigned supreme has found its most brilliant modern interpreter. Perry s gripping new Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novel invites us back to Victorian London, where greed and ambition never sleep, and passion sometimes runs riot. As the nineteenth century draws to a close, most of Europe is in political turmoil, and terrorist threats loom large across...