On a patrol boat near Waterloo Bridge, police superintendent William Monk notices a young couple engaged in an intense discussion. Seconds later, the two plunge to their deaths in the icy waters of the Thames. Was it an accident, a suicide, or a murder? Ever the investigator, Monk learns that the woman, Mary Havilland, had planned to marry the fair-haired man who shared her fate. He also discovers that Mary's father had recently died in a supposed...

On the bustling docks along the River Thames, Great Britain’s merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucrative trade. The dreaded kingpin of this dark realm is Jericho Phillips, who seems far beyond the reach of the law. But when thirteen-year-old Fig is found with his throat cut, Commander William Monk of the River Police swears that Phillips will hang for this abomination....

Reluctantly accepting an assignment to investigate an Ivory cargo theft along the Thames, Victorian sleuth William Monk wonders why his client elected not to report the crime to police.

"When William Monk's wife, Hester, is kidnapped from the hospital where she volunteers, Monk is desperate to rescue her. But when his investigation leads him to the remote home of the wealthy and enigmatic Bryson Radnor--and to several bodies buried on his grounds--Monk realizes there is far more to Hester's kidnapping than meets the eye. What did Hester learn that made her a danger to Radnor? What are the two doctors Hester was working with at the...

"In the course of his tenure with the Thames River Police, Commander Monk has yet to see a more gruesome crime scene: a Hungarian warehouse owner lies in the middle of his blood-sodden office, pierced through the chest with a bayonet and eerily surrounded by seventeen candles, their wicks dipped in blood. Suspecting the murder may be rooted in ethnic prejudice, Monk turns to London's Hungarian community in search of clues but finds his inquiries stymied...