Gentleman Investigator for the Crown, Sir Maurice Newbury, has brilliantly solved a number of near-impossible cases for Queen Victoria along with his assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes. But while all appears well on the surface, Newbury has an increasingly uncontrollable secret... What was once a flirtation with the lure of opium has turned into a full-blown addiction for Newbury. Hobbes, along with Newbury’s dear friend Bainbridge, the chief investigator at Scotland Yard, try to cover for him as much as possible, but when the body of a well known criminal turns up, Bainbridge and Hobbes drag Newbury from an opium den to help them with the case. The body is irrefutably that of the criminal, but shortly after his body is brought to the morgue, a crime is discovered that bears all the dead man’s hallmarks. Newbury and Hobbes will come face to face with their hardest and darkest investigation to date. These are no copycat killings... But how can a dead man commit a crime?