January 1822 - A child is found dead on wasteland in London's Liberty of Norton Folgate. Adah Flint, the Liberty's Searcher, must examine the little girl's body to determine her identity and discover the cause of death. Adah's search for the truth takes her through the cosmopolitan backstreets of early 19th century London, with its inns and prisons, street markets and prostitution, cruelty and compassion. Based on real characters and a true crime, this novel takes readers into the long-forgotten world of the women searchers who once played an important role in the solving of crimes, and eventually into the twenty-first century, where mysteries are resolved and new enigmas unfold.