The first man murdered was Abel Meredith, a resident at the Jesus Hospital Almshouse near London.The second victim, Roderick Gill, was burser at the Allison's school in Norfolk. Victim number three, Sir Rufus Walcott, was slain in his own hall by the Thames. All had their throats cut.And all had strange markings on their chests, carved there by the murderer but which neither doctor nor coroner could identify.

Lord Francis Powerscourt, brought in to solve this case of triple murder, had no shortage of suspects or suspicions.Meredith had shadowy links with the civil service. Gill, a man who seduced women at church during Harvest Festival or the Christmas carol service, had been threatened by angry husbands and disinherited sons while Sir Rufus had wiped fifteen years out of his own past history.And all had ties to Sir Peregrine Fishbourne, Prime Warden of the Guild of Silkworkers, who had visited all three men shortly before their untimely deaths. Yet on one question Powerscourt never wavered, and he knew that only when he had solved the mystery of the strange markings on the victims' bodies would he then be able to solve the mystery of the death at the Jesus Hospital.

Praise for David Dickinson:

'Splendid entertainment' Publishers Weekly

'A leisurely period whodunit with Dickinson's customary historical tidbits and patches of local color, swathed in an appealing Victorian narrative' Kirkus Reviews

'Detective fiction in the grand style' James Naughtie

'A cracking yarn, beguilingly real from start to finish' Peter Snow