Suspicion and fear are running high in London, as a gang of expert criminals terrorizes the town in a spree of robbery and murder. And in a time when slavery is still practiced in the colonies, there is but one peculiar clue to the identity of this group: The robbers are all black men. The blind judge Sir John Fielding is on the case to ensure that the guilty are punished and that no hasty conclusions are made. But when Sir John takes a bullet to the shoulder, his young protégé, Jeremy Proctor, must lead this most delicate investigation under his bedridden counsel. And when Jeremy begins to turn over stones, he and Sir John come to find that black and white are never as simple as they seem…. “Lively storytelling…accurate period details…Alexander offers food for thought as well as first class entertainment.”—Publisher’s Weekly “Alexander is wonderful at catching the pungent flavor of this grandly messy emerging world capital.”—The Washington Post