The 2nd in the Blake and Avery mystery series. It's 1841, and something very strange is going on in the back streets of London. There has been a series of dreadful murders in the slums of the printing district, which the police mysteriously refuse to investigate, yet the culprit must be caught before he kills again. Three years after we left them at the close of THE STRANGLER VINE, Blake and Avery find themselves reunited in a race against time to find and stop the murderer.