LONDON, 1930

The night is sooty, sulphurous, and malign. A spate of violent deaths has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. No woman should be out on a night like this. But Rachel Savernake is no ordinary woman.

To Scotland Yard's embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now - along with journalist Jacob Flint - she's on the trail of another killer.

Savernake and Flint's pursuit of the truth will mire them ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, they will be swept ever-closer to that ancient place of execution, where it all began and where it will finally end: Gallows Court.

'Superb - a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write' Lee Child

'Packed with evocative period detail, twists and turns and a fascinatingly enigmatic anti-heroine' Financial Times

'Edwards has managed, brilliantly, to combine a Golden Age setting with a pace that is bang up-to-date. A great sense of the era observed through a cut-throat-sharp eye, every page dripping with brilliant period authenticity' Peter James

'A ripping tale of retribution and rough justice, set against a finely realised 1930s London. It reads as if Ruth Rendell were channelling Edgar Wallace' Mick Herron

'Liberally spiced with mystery, suspense and action ... A thoroughly gripping read' Peter Robinson