The Archbishop of Canterbury's request for help from former spy Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is undeniably intriguing: The bodies of two men have been found in an ancient crypt, their violent deaths separated by decades. One is the Bishop of London, the elderly Archbishop's favored but controversial successor. And the last person to see him alive was Miss Hero Jarvis, with whom Sebastian shares a strained, and complicated, relationship.

The sole witness to the slaughter of eight young prostitutes at a house of refuge near Covent Garden, Hero Jarvis, daughter of the Prince Regent's cousin, Lord Jarvis, joins forces with Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, to investigate the massacre, following a trail of danger that takes them from London's seedy underbelly to the highest levels of society.

A stellar line-up of historical mystery novelists weaves the tale of a priceless and cursed gold watch as it passes through time wreaking havoc from one owner to another. The characters are irrevocably linked by fate, each playing a key role in breaking the curse and destroying the watch once and for all. From 1733 Italy to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in 1870 London, and a lethal game of revenge decades later, the watch touches...