When Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley is summoned from a student cricket match to learn that his parents have died in an automobile crash the shocking news sets off an investigation by Joseph and his brother, Matthew, an officer in the Intelligence Service, to look for a secret document that their father was trying to deliver to Matthew at the time of his death, a document with the power to disgrace England forever and destroy the civilized world. What has happened to this explosive document, if it ever existed? Then Josephs most gifted student is murdered. As the distance between the death of an Austrian archduke and the death of a brilliant university student grows shorter by the day this haunting tale sweeps into a bygone age full of love and hate, cowardice and courage, good and evil elements that are always a part of life.

About the Author:Anne Perry is the bestselling author Death of a Stranger, Funeral in Blue, Half Moon Street, Seven Dials, Slaves of Obsession, Southampton Row, The Twisted Root, and The Whitechapel Conspiracy.