Graverobbing, a faceless corpse, a woman dead from shock, and a woodland cemetery where men indulge their forbidden desires. What ties these to the pastor of the Stoke Newington Congregationalist Chapel, a Greek immigrant, and an affluent family? Everything is connected, but the puzzle is complex, and it’s up to Jack Merrit to solve the macabre mystery.
While Will and Ned delve into the science behind the crime, Jack’s enquiries take him deep into the dark corners of Abney Park Cemetery where men lurk in the shadows, driven there by lust and the need for secrecy. With his loyal partner, Ben Baxter, by his side, Jack walks among temptation. The dangerous thrill of anonymous sex is a powerful lure, but if he is to remain true to his lover, solve the case, and save an innocent man’s life, he must resist the beckoning darkness.Jack is left in charge of the agency, its new staff, and a missing person case that arrives unexpectedly from the Cheap Street Mission. A fourteen-year-old boy has vanished, and his older brother, Simeon, is desperate to find him. At first, the only clue is a cutthroat razor, but as Simeon’s past unfolds, so the case darkens with complications.
As they race to find the boy, Jack and Will’s journey takes them from the unbelievable illusions of Piccadilly’s Egyptian Hall to an opium den in Whitechapel, and from a molly house to the sewers deep beneath London. What the Delamere detectives don't know is that if they fail to find the boy in time, the razor will play a gruesome part in a very public death.
Kidnapping, illusions, East End rent boys, and murders in the style of Grand Guignol, the fifth book in the Delamere Files series is the darkest yet. The books should be read in order.
