Thomas Pitt, mainstay of Her Majesty’s Special Branch, is summoned to Connaught Square mansion, where the body of a junior diplomat lies huddled in a wheelbarrow. Nearby stands the tenant of the house, the beautiful, notorious Egyptian woman Ayesha Zakhari, who falls under the shadow of suspicion. Pitt’s orders are to protect—at all costs—the good name of the third person in the garden: senior cabinet minister Saville Ryerson. The distinguished public servant, whispered to be Ayesha’s lover, insists that she is as innocent as Pitt himself. Pitt’s journey to uncover the truth takes him from Egyptian cotton fields to the insidious London slum called Seven Dials—and ultimately to a packed London courtroom in which shocking secrets will at last be revealed.

“Terrific, vivid stuff . . . Prolific Anne Perry [is] a master of the genre.”—The Seattle Times

“Intricately layered . . . The visual panorama is voluptuous to behold.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Perry’s as good as it gets. . . . The final courtroom scene produces more victims and left me breathless.”—Providence Journal
 
“Captivating . . . offers an added dollop of historical interest, immersing both Pitt and the reader in the intrigue and seething atmosphere of Egypt.”—Spartanburg Herald-Journal
 
“One of the best [novels] that Perry has written.”—The Historical Novels Review