When obscure moneylender William Weems is murdered in the humble Clerkenwell district, there are no mourners, and more than a little discreet rejoicing among those whose meager earnings he drained. Yet when Inspector Thomas Pitt finds a list that Weems held, with some of Victorian London's most distinguished names written upon it, he realizes the man was no common usurer but a vicious blackmailer. In this 12th mystery in Anne Perry's atmospheric historical series, Pitt's society wife Charlotte provides invaluable insight into a world of passion, power, and greed that the police are seldom permitted to see.

"If you want to be privy to the romance, politics, and scandal of Victorian London, this descriptive, leisurely paced mystery may well be your cup of Earl Grey tea."—Houston Chronicle