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....

A new installment featuring police superintendent William Monk. A high-end prostitute is found brutally murdered on the London docks, and Monk's quest to discover the truth behind her death leads him down a shocking path, littered with secrets that have been buried since the infamous Opium Wars. Monk discovers a shocking truth while investigating the murder of a high-end prostitute with ties to an opium-dispensing doctor's widow.

"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...