A professional assassin stalks London’s streets in the first historical mystery featuring Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Stark.

London, 1921. The Great War has recently ended and tensions in England are high. Now, prominent Cabinet minister Lord Amersham has been shot dead outside his Regent’s Park home. With two bullets to the chest and one to the forehead, all signs point to a professional hit.

Charged with solving one of the most sensitive and high-profile cases Scotland Yard has ever faced, DCI Paul Stark is under pressure to get the job done quickly. Amersham’s colleague Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies, is convinced the Bolsheviks are responsible. Stark’s contemporaries at Special Branch believe there’s a connection to Government talks about Irish Home Rule. And others believe the motive could be connected to Lord Amersham’s rather scandalous private life . . .

When a second crime takes place—another murder committed by an expert marksman at close range—the case takes a terrifying turn and puts Stark right in the middle of an international crisis.

“Besides providing interesting nuggets of history, Eldridge depicts his lead characters with complexity and compassion, auguring well for this series kickoff.” —Kirkus Reviews