It's 1882, and Leo, his wife Rosie and her children have arrived in Portsmouth to visit Rosie's sister Viola and Leo's old friend Peregrine. But this is no simple seaside retreat: while Viola expects them for dinner, Peregrine needs Leo to investigate a murder.A young man has been killed by the docks. Just as Leo arrives there is a second killing, of a young woman with a strange tattoo. Leo wants to leave the crimes to the police, but when the detectives dismiss the deaths as of only ?molly-lads' and misfits, he can't help but be drawn into the case.Soon he is embroiled in a web of theft and secrets taking him from the docks through suburban streets to Portsmouth's underground nightlife - before leading uncomfortably close to the in-laws he had just begun to get to know.