Can it be true that God demands a terrible price of those He has gifted with great creativity? Giacomo Cassano, little known mentor of Dante, thought so. He held other beliefs too - beliefs that the Church found so abhorrent they had Cassano blinded and his tongue cut out to silence him forever.

Bestselling biographer Megan Hunter's new book about Cassano looks set to be as successful as her previous biographies of Caravaggio and Dante. As she embarks on a publicity tour, Megan finds her book attracting attention for the wrong reasons when her editor is found horrifically murdered. It is a classic locked-room mystery. The only pieces of evidence are the destroyed remains of Megan Hunter's Cassano biography and the latest blockbuster by horror writer John Paxton. But there is nothing to link the two authors. Nothing but another murder. And another.

And a secret beyond the belief of even Cassano himself ...