Chichester
1894
Private detective Jane Dowling is invited by the Bishop of Chichester to investigate a series of anonymous letters he has received, because a local prostitute has expired in the cathedral's Magdalene Chapel in a way predicted by the first letter. Jane arrives but is soon ruffling the feathers of the higher orders in Cathedral Close and is sent away to Pevensey Marshes with the dean's assistant to investigate irregularities in church rituals. Then the body of the Cannon Treasurer is found hanging in the cloisters in a way matching the second anonymous letter and Jane is rapidly recalled.
Her investigation fails to prevent the third death predicted in the letters, but slowly she comes to understand what is happening, and convinces the police to reopen the investigation into the first death. A trap is set, but not before Jane finds herself a target.