"As casualty lists grimly mount in America's Civil War, the death of a lowly man of the cloth in London attracts an unaccountable degree of attention. Confederate agents seek warships for their struggling navy at any cost. The Union's representative to Britain - the son and grandson of U.S. presidents - maneuvers desperately to block them. And a federal officer with a limp and a Welsh lilt returns to the land he once left in hope of a better life." Grotesque murders multiply as Major Abel Jones pursues a monstrous killer who may be a well-connected Confederate agent or a ghost from Jones's bloody past in India - or both. England's political leaders - including Benjamin Disraeli - appear to have a great deal to hide. Everyone seems determined to thwart Jones's search for justice - but are they interested in supporting the Confederacy or in masking personal scandals? The threat of an ocean-spanning war hangs over each new crime as Jones struggles to find a rumored warship that would serve the Rebels as a wonder-weapon of the age - and stop it from sailing. A music-hall girl of doubtful morals may hold the answers he needs - if Jones, the appalled moralist, can keep her alive. No single identity is certain, no motive unmarred. And psychotic violence lurks behind well-tailored morning coats and flawless manners.