This is the 26th novel in Perry's series featuring Thomas Perry (now head of Special Branch, the special British police unit organized at the turn of the 19th century to deal with European anarchists and Irish revolutionaries), and his clever wife Charlotte.
Thomas and his predecessor at Special Branch, Victor Narraway, become involved in the investigation into the brutal rape and subsequent suicide of the wife of a wealthy and influential London investment banker. Meanwhile, the observant Charlotte suspects that several young debutantes have also been sexually assaulted by a young man of dissolute and violent disposition. One of them, the daughter of the Portuguese ambassador, falls to her death in the middle of a ball. Is this coincidence? Can there be two violent rapists attacking socially prominent women in London? Is there more at work here than appears on the surface? Although these crimes appear to fall outside the remit of Special Branch, Narroway appeals to Thomas to help, and Charlotte urges him on.
Then the police make an arrest. Narroway, Thomas and Charlotte are convinced that the man arrested is not the rapist. But their efforts to find evidence to prove his innocence are thwarted by the accused's strange reluctance to reveal the true reasons for his frequent meetings with the banker's wife.
Anne Perry tells a compelling tale, revealing the dark side of the glittering British Empire at the height of its power, corruption and hypocrisy.
