Inspector Thomas Pitt is called to a shocking murder scene. The dead man lies in a small battered boat drifting on the Thames, his arms and legs chained to the sides of the boat. He is dressed in a torn green gown. Flowers are strewn over his battered body.

Pitt's determined search for answers leads him deep into London's bohemia and into studios where masters of light and shadow are experimenting with the fascinating new art of photography. And as always his pursuit is relentless....

Once again Anne Perry asks us to look deeply into the crimes of the heart and rewards us with a brilliant portrait of the long-ago world that she has made her own.