In the gathering storm before the French Revolution, a quiet English city is beset by intrigue, corruption and violence.
With help from his friend and researcher, Frank Barber – Dr Johnson’s former manservant and a manumitted slave, and from his watchman, Dudley Netherford, down at heel thief-taker Samuel Kinsman must untangle the threads of conspiracy, patronage and prejudice if he is to avoid humiliation, or worse, and save his family from the threats that confront them.
