The year is 1861 and Inspector Faro's rest is disrupted when he is given a special assignment by old friend, Detective Superintendent Macfie. Macfie's cousin-in-law, a champion swimmer, has drowned in mysterious circumstances. Could his death have really been an accident, or is something more sinister going on?

Arriving in Orkney to investigate, he is met with rumors of missing artifacts, the myth of the seal king, a dead body under the floor of Scarthbreck, his first love, and a mother who is determined to find him a wife. But, in Faro's opinion, no matter how distracting the local legends are or how valuable the artifacts, one man's life or needless death, is truly beyond price.

Genre: Historical Mystery