When crime-beat journalist Jacob Flint receives a visit from a fortune teller who insists he's had a vision of a murder soon to occur in Hemlock Bay, Jacob consults with enigmatic heiress and brilliant amateur sleuth Rachel Savernake to get her take on the man's outlandish claim. Meanwhile, mild-mannered accountant Basil Palmer is en route to Hemlock Bay, determined to murder a man he's never met --- a man he holds responsible for his beloved wife's death six months prior. Could this be the murder foretold by the fortune teller? Whether pre-destined or plotted, a murder does occur. But as Rachel plunges deeper and deeper into the morass of mysterious events and suspects, she begins to wonder if she is equal to the case.

The woman in white --- surreal artist Damaris Gethin --- has invited a select group to the opening of her exhibit, "Artist in Crime," held in the eerie subterranean Hades Gallery. As costumed models reenact famously violent deaths, the artist herself portrays Marie Antoinette on the day of her execution, complete with a guillotine on the stage. It's not a prop. Within 10 minutes of Rachel's promise to solve Damaris' future murder, the artist slips her neck into the collar of the device, and the very real blade sends her head rolling at the feet of her horrified audience. As everyone reels from the shock, Rachel quickly learns that Damaris herself accomplished the deed with the push of a button --- a suicide. So then why did she ask Rachel to solve her "murder?"

1930: Nell Fagan is looking for a second chance at a career in investigative journalism, and the call of Blackstone Fell's sanatorium is irresistible. In 1606, a man vanished from a locked gatehouse in a remote Yorkshire village, and 300 years later, it happened again. Nell confides in the best sleuth she knows, Rachel Savernake. Looking for answers, Rachel travels to lonely Blackstone Fell in Yorkshire, with its eerie moor and sinister tower. With help from her friend, Jacob Flint --- who's determined to expose a fraudulent clairvoyant --- Rachel will risk her life to bring an end to the disappearances at Blackstone Fell where people go in but never come out.

In 1930, a chilling encounter on London's Necropolis Railway leads to murder, and a man escapes the gallows after a witness gives sensational evidence. After this string of strange, fatal events, journalist Jacob Flint discovers that he has been framed for murder. To save himself, he flees to Mortmain Hall, a remote estate on the northern coast. There, an eccentric female criminologist hosts a gathering of eclectic people who have all escaped miscarriages of cruel justice. When a body is found beneath the cliffs near the house, it seems this gathering might be an ingenious plot to get away with murder. Jacob must now set out to uncover the labyrinthine of secrets within Mortmain Hall, alongside Rachel Savernake, a woman whose relentless quest for the truth might just bring down the British establishment.

A spate of violent deaths has horrified London, and Rachel Savernake --- the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge --- is on the killer’s trail. Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He's not the only one. Flint's pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder by murder, he'll be swept ever closer to its dark heart --- an ancient place of execution. Twisted family relationships add to a trust-no-one narrative positively reeking with atmosphere.