Ten years on from THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER, Stratham Younger and James Littlemore embark on a thrilling new adventure in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in New York; it is a story that will lead Stratham to the heart of war-ravaged Europe, where he will once again encounter Sigmund Freud. 12.01pm, September 16, 1920. A quarter ton of explosives is detonated on New York's Wall Street, the deadliest attack in the United States' 150 year history. Stratham Younger, recently returned from the battlefields of Europe, witnesses the explosion alongside Captain James Littlemore of the NYPD and Colette Rousseau, a brilliant and beautiful young disciple of Marie Curie. Littlemore's investigation will lead him into conflict with the FBI, and to the centre of a dangerous web of corruption that links Wall Street and Washington. Meanwhile Stratham and Colette embark on a perilous journey that will take them to Vienna, where Freud will shed light on his theory of the human desire for destruction, even self-destruction, which he terms 'the death instinct'.