In 2011, D.J. McIntosh took the book world by storm with her debut novel,The Witch of Babylon. Praised for its “stellar research” and “superb writing”, it introduced readers to John Madison, a rakish New York art dealer with a past, who uncovered a fabulous treasure trove of antiquities in the hills outside of Baghdad and the truth behind a famous story long believed to by a myth.

In the highly anticipated sequel, New York art dealer John Madison travels to London to purchase at auction a rare seventeenth-century Italian book of fairy tales for an anonymous client. Before he can deliver it to the buyer, he is robbed by a mysterious man claiming to be the book's author. When his client disappears and the book’s provenance is questioned, Madison realizes that the only way to find the buyer, recover the lost book, and save his reputation is to immerse himself in the world of European aristocracy and bibliophilic obsession. Along the way, he discovers that a well-loved children's tale contains a necromancer's spell and the truth about an ancient Mesopotamian plague.