In post-Regency London, dynamic former spies Malcolm Rannoch and his elegant wife Mélanie chase devastating secrets tied to the scandalous royal divorce trial.
London, October 1820. Queen Caroline's divorce trial makes the House of Lords as crowded as a London ballroom—but far more deadly, as Mélanie discovers when she literally stumbles over a body while threading her way through the crush. More shockingly, she recognizes the victim as her friend Cordelia Davenport's former lover, George Chase, who recently fled England in disgrace. Mélanie is unable to save him but hears him say "Cordelia" with his dying breath. No one knows why George returned to England. But just before he was killed, he was trying to get a message to the prime minister saying he had vital information about the royal divorce.
Mélanie and Malcolm plunge into an investigation that could shatter the lives of their closest friends and topple the British government. From hushed Whitehall council rooms to gin-soaked Covent Garden taverns, exclusive St. James's clubs, and Mayfair masquerade balls, they follow a twisting trail of family secrets and royal intrigue. As former spies, they expect the unexpected. But nothing has prepared them for a cascade of revelations that forces them to question everything they know—including their own future.