Following Jeremy proctor's adoption by the Bow Street magistrate, Sir John Fielding, he has been found an apprenticeship with a printer in Grub Street. It was his father's trade and his knowledge of the business that had been happily snapped up by Ezekiel Cribb. However, on the day he was due to begin his apprenticeship, Cribb and his entire household are found massacred, the only survivor - heavily blood-stained - being a young poet whose work had been successfully published by Cribb. On the face of it he seems obviously guilty, but after cross-examining him Fielding isn't so sure and once more uses Jeremy's sharp eyes to assist him in revealing the real killer. A brilliant whodunnit, with an evocative and original setting.