bristol (england)

After a vagrant finds a dog wandering alone carrying a scrap of paper with the words "HELP US" attached to its collar, Caffery races against time to find the dog's owners, while a wealthy local family, held hostage in their remote home, fight for their lives.

In this chilling, seamlessly-plotted thriller, British detective Jack Caffery must find a dangerous mental patient on the loose before he can kill again?.

Detective Jack Caffery investigates a series of possible suicides that appear to have a connection with Elf's Grotto in Bristol, but with help from police diver Flea Marley, Caffery discovers more evidence that points to an insane predator obsessed with skin.

Frances Scott, the penniless niece of an English lord, agrees to marry Bristol trader Josiah Cole, an arrangement that provides her with a home and him with the social contacts he needs to build his business. However, she is forced to confront her need for love and liberty when Josiah brings the slave Mehuru to their house and assigns her the task of training the man, a former priest and aide to the King of Yoruba, to become a house servant.