When learning of her mother's distress in losing a locket with a picture of a man not her husband, Charlotte Pitt has no idea that it's only the first in a bizarre series of events that will end in sudden death. In this, their fifth outing in Anne Perry's late Victorian historical mystery series, Charlotte and her husband Inspector Thomas Pitt are well established as a most unusual sleuthing team. Trouble, however, seems to be following them, for hidden behind the elegance of Rutland Place, where Charlotte's mother lives, are secrets so macabre that only murder can conceal them.

"When Anne Perry puts Thomas and Charlotte Pitt on the case, we are in exemplary Victorian company."—NYTimes