Restoration London, 1664, brought vividly to life, with all the sights, sounds and smells of a teeming city, and loaded with intrigue and crawling with treachery

Harry Lytle has just discovered he has a young cousin, Anne Giles. But he's had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time as a corpse. With some robust assistance from David Dowling, a witty, impressively well-built, but hygiene-deficient, butcher, Harry sets out to track down Anne's killer.

Together they follow a trail of blood, conspiracy and corruption that takes them to the dark and murky corners of London, featuring a great cast of ne'er-do-wells, cheeky wenches, harmless witches, likeable villains, and a few unsavoury fellows keen on sending Lytle and his companion to an early grave.