Suffocated by the constraints of high society and yearning to prove herself as a journalist, Catriona Winters heads to the scene of a shocking crime: a marquess found slain, his body drifting off the Limehouse docks.

Her reporting throws her directly across the path of Scotland Yard inspector Thomas Marlowe, who is intent on keeping the details of his inquiry out of the headlines. But Catriona is no stranger to the murder victim, and as she delves ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding his death, she discovers a scheme of blackmail that creeps from the darkest slums to the parlours of the aristocracy.

When a second killing shocks London, leaving no one above suspicion, she and Marlowe must set aside their rivalry to unmask the killer before he strikes again—and before Catriona makes herself his next victim.