A John Rawlings Georgian mystery - Apothecary John Rawlings has been summoned to Devon by his beautiful but unpredictable mistress. Leaving his daughter Rose in the good care of her grandfather, Rawlings sets off for Exeter. His fellow stagecoach passengers are a motley crew, and include a large and talkative German lady, a dance-master and a bare-knuckle fighter known as the Black Pyramid. Before the journeys end a man has been found brutally murdered, and Rawlings is once again drawn into a complex and dangerous intrigue.