On the cold February night in Regency London, a dark curtain falls within the Sans Pareil Theatre following the death of April Clare, a promising young actress, whose body is found in mysterious circumstances.

Detective Stephen Lavender and his reliable deputy, Constable Woods, quickly find that nothing is quite as it seems. As successive mysteries unfold, they shortly realise that it is not only the actors from the Sans Pareil who are playing a part.

With the Napoleonic Wars looming dangerously over the Channel, this is a time of suspicion and treachery. Following clues from the seedy back streets of Covent Backyard up through the echelons of society, Lavender and Woods begin to fear the fact that case is much bigger than they’d dared imagine–and even worse, that they are vulnerable to becoming mere players inside a master legal’s shadowy theatre.

It will require all of Lavender’s skill and wit, and help from the stunning Magdalena, to bring the mystery from the Sans Pareil Theatre to a dramatic conclusion in the final act.