The crime appeared as easily solved as it was wicked. A Grub Street printer, his family, and two apprentices brutally murdered in their sleep. A locked building. And at the scene, a raving mad poet brandishing a bloody axe. Surely the culprit had been found, and justice would be swift and severe.

But to Sir John Fielding, justice was more than finding a culprit-it was finding the truth. Aided by thirteen-year-old Jeremy Proctor, Fielding decided to investigate further. And the truth behind the Grub Street massacre was more evil-and more deadly-than the dastardly crime itself.