The new 2025 twisty historical mystery of disguise, deception and blood from a bestselling, award-winning author

The sudden death of a beloved brother leads a young woman on a quest to find a missing boy and into a tangled web of mystery, blood and fear.

Maitland 1892

When Viola' Oswald's beloved brother Sebastian dies of a hereditary blood disease, Viola suspects her stepfather, prestigious surgeon Elias Sinclair, has used Sebastian's illness to enhance his reputation. But Viola has no proof until she discovers a letter within the pages of Sebastian's favourite book—Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare. A letter that sends a determined Viola, on a journey to the country town of Maitland to find a homeless boy who suffered at her stepfather's hands and can provide the proof she needs.

Once there, Viola finds help from an independent local seamstress and a clever lawyers' clerk, as well as a ragtag bunch of urchins. As the dark story unfolds it becomes clear that the missing boy's fate is intertwined with her own and that terrible cruelties are being committed by her stepfather in the name of medical advancement.

Viola fears for her mother, the child she is about to birth and all the homeless boys caught up in a terrifying web of deceit and death. Will she find the evidence to bring her stepfather to justice in time to save them?