Publisher's Synopsis
1851. Wealthy businessman Jacob Welland is dying of consumption and implores private detective Laetitia Rodd to find his beloved brother, whom he has not seen for ten years. An impoverished Oxford scholar who left college to live as a wandering hermit, Joshua Welland has been spotted in a gypsy camp, where it was rumoured he was learning great secrets. Her search reconnects Laetitia with a couple from her past, but then a murder is committed. Laetitia's friend, Inspector Blackbeard of Scotland Yard, dismisses her talk of gypsies and secrets, but Laetitia is convinced something sinister lurks in this peaceful landscape.
