The secret to film is that it's only an illusion... or so he thought.

London, April 1914. Against his better judgement, Detective Inspector Silas Quinn is attending the premiere of the new motion picture by notorious American film-maker Konrad Waechter.

But the glamorous event is interrupted by the piercing screams of a young woman in the street outside. She has been viciously mutilated in a horrific accident which eerily echoes a macabre act of violence in Waechter's film.

As he questions those who attended the premiere, Quinn's jaundiced view of the fledgling film industry as a business based on pretence, where no one is what they seem, appears to be justified. But soon the investigation takes a disturbing twist that has him questioning everything he thought he knew...

A blood-curdling, unputdownable historical mystery, for fans of C. J. Sansom, Rory Clements and S. G. MacLean.

Praise for R. N. Morris

'At once fascinating and repelling, this is a gripping read' Booklist

'Stellar ... Ruth Rendell fans open to stories set a century ago will be well satisfied' Publishers Weekly