Soon after Sally Lockhart's father drowns at sea she receives an anonymous letter. The dire warning it contains makes a man die of fear at her feet. Determined to discover the truth about her father's death Sally is plunged into a terrifying mystery in the dark heart of Victorian London at the centre of which lies a deadly blood-soaked jewel. Philip Pullman's ever-popular action-packed Victorian melodramas are rejacketed for the bicentenary of Charles Dickens in 2012.