The much-anticipated second novel in the charming, sharply plotted Victorian crime series starring a detective duo to rival Holmes and Watson. 125 Gower Street, 1882. Sidney Grice once had a reputation as London's most perspicacious personal detective. But since his last case led an innocent man to the gallows, business has been light. Listless and depressed, Grice has taken to lying in the bath for hours, emerging in the evenings for a little dry toast and a lot of tea. Usually a voracious reader, he will pick up neither book nor newspaper. He has not even gathered the strength to re-insert his glass eye. His ward, March Middleton, has been left to dine alone. Then an eccentric member of a Final Death Society has the temerity to die on his study floor. Finally, Sidney and March have an investigation to mount ― an investigation that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew, and the mysterious Baroness Foskett... “Kasasian deepens the mystery of the relationship between his decidedly non–Holmes and Watson duo in his superior second whodunit set in late Victorian London. Kasasian again successfully blends the gruesome and the humorous.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “In his second adventure (after ?The Mangle Street Murders ), private detective Sidney Grice, depressed by his last case, perks up when a visitor dies in his study; finally he and his ward, March Middleton, have a new mystery to solve that will draw them to an eerie house in Kew and the enigmatic Baroness Foskett.” - Library Journal “A fast-paced, witty book. While March must overcome both the prejudices of those who see her as "mere Miss Middleton" Grice has to readjust his ideas about the intelligence and capability of women as he begins to accept his goddaughter as a possible assistant. Although the parallels are unmistakable, Grice and Middleton are refreshingly different from Holmes and Watson.” - Shelf Awareness “One of the most delightful and original new novels of the year―the first in a series that could well become a cult.” - The Daily Mail M. R. C. Kasasian is the author of The Mangle Street Murders , The Curse of the House of Foskett , Death Descends on Saturn Villa , and The Secrets of Gaslight Lane , all available from Pegasus Crime. He divides his time between Suffolk and Malta.