Cavalry captain Gabriel Lacey returns to Regency London from the Napoleonic wars to become interested in solving crimes that go unnoticed by the Bow Street Runners, and take him from the mansions of Mayfair to the backstreets of London's rookeries.
Captain Lacey is asked by Peter Thompson of the Thames River Police to help him investigate a cold case–the murder of a woman found near the docks Thompson patrols. The investigation was sidelined, considered unsolvable, but Thompson has long wished to find her killer.
Captain Lacey joins him in the hunt, entering a part of society that is closed to outsiders. Meanwhile, he must deal with his daughter’s debut and more developments in his new domestic life, including an anonymous blackmailer who’s out to ruin Lacey any way he can.
USA Today Bestselling author Ashley Gardner is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Ashley. Under both names—and a third, Allyson James—Ashley has written more than 130 published novels and novellas in mystery, romance, fantasy, and historical fiction. Ashley's books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages and have earned starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and Booklist. When she isn’t writing, she indulges her love for history by researching and building miniature houses and furniture from many periods, and playing classical guitar and piano.