When Mary Russell is called upon to investigate the criminal activities that surround England's silent-film supremo Randolph Fflytte she finds herself travelling undercover to Morocco as chaperone to the stars of his latest extravaganza Pirate King based on Gilbert & Sullivan's masterful The Pirates of Penzance Nothing seems amiss until the cameras start to roll & Mary feels a storm of trouble brewinga derelict boat a film crew with secrets ominous currents between the pirates decks awash with budding romance
- & where is her husband Sherlock Holmes? As film fiction becomes true terror Russell & Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout