Murder on Black Swan Lane

The Earl of Wrexford has a gifted scientific mind and a short temper for fools. Bored and proud, he often behaves recklessly. When the pious Reverend Josiah Holworthy denounces him in public for debauchery, Wrexford answers with cutting wit, and the quarrel grows more heated with each exchange.

London's most popular satirical cartoonist, A.J. Quill, mocks both men in print. Then Holworthy is found dead in a church, his face burned by chemicals and his throat cut from ear to ear. Wrexford becomes the chief suspect.

A.J. Quill is in fact Charlotte Sloane, an artist who has taken on the identity of her late husband and drawn under his pen name. When Wrexford learns her secret, she fears exposure and ruin. He offers a bargain instead: she uses her network of sources to uncover the clergyman's hidden ties to dubious scientific practices, and together they hunt the real killer.

This is a historical mystery set in London, with a mismatched pair of investigators at its center. Their search leads into a hidden world within the city's intellectual circles, where a cunning adversary is willing to experiment on human lives. The tone is sharp and suspenseful, and the danger grows as the pair close in on the murderer.