A gripping story of danger, intrigue, jealousy and love set in the uncertain world of Oliver Cromwell’s post-civil war Republic.

When army surgeon, John Lockyer attends the pregnant victim of a street stabbing, saving the child but not the mother, Lady Derryn Barlow, ward of the Earl of Pembroke, his life unravels. Hours later, a hospital laundry maid, Sally, is killed and, pressured to keep quiet by the Earl’s henchman, Lockyer and his colleague, Madame O’Brien, search for Sally’s sister, Finny, at the Whitecross Street brothel. But she has already fled.

What is the link between the dead women? Who has taken the child? What are the brothel’s secrets? And will the murderer be found?

Infiltrating the exiled Royalists in France, will Lockyer uncover the answers? Will he find favour with Cromwell? And will he meet Madame O’Brien again?

In this compelling debut, Tallis Clark deploys her medical expertise and meticulous historical research to deliver a pitch-perfect story of murder, forensic investigation, political high stakes and the search for truth.