Three seemingly disparate events might have a connection and it'll be up to Frances, Great Britain's best female sleuth to solve that riddle.
In 1910 a botched burglary of a jewelry store in East London leads to the Houndsditch Murders. A group of Eastern European anarchists headed by a George Gardstein are caught as they're just about to break into the jewelry store. In the milieu that follows, three British bobbies are murdered as the gang of anarchists escape. The Siege of Sidney Street is the government's crackdown and rounding up of most of these ne'er-do-wells.
But not all of the gang are captured. Some escape and a few years later, in July of 1914 the Archduke Ferdinand is murdered, starting the First World War. Some believe these anarchists played a role.
As Lord and Lady Marmalade are invited up to Balmoral Castle by King George V for a meeting to discuss the war efforts, the King is found poisoned shortly after dinner on their last night there. Colonel Trenchard, a military man, is arrested but Frances is not sure he did it.
Can Frances put the puzzle together and identify the real killer, in time to save the Colonel from the gallows?
