In eighteenth-century London, a killer walks the teeming streets. His victims are always young prostitutes with red hair. Before they die, they hear whispers that speak of stars. Of a woman named Selene. Then they feel the cord around their necks...

While the Revolution rages across the Channel, Jonathan Absey, working for England's Home Office, tracks down foreign spies in the war against France. But he is obsessed with the recent killings of prostitutes, all of whom resemble his lost daughter, who met her end in the shadowy alleys of London.

The redemption he craves won't be found in the politics of war. The answers he seeks won't be on the city streets. Danger and intrigue will compel him to look elsewhere, for it is where he least expects it that a secret is hiding...