Description

A gasworker murdered. A boy accused. A detective out of his depth.

London, 1860. Ten-year-old workhouse escapee Tommy Jones is accused of murdering his only friend, a stoker at the gasworks. When the assigned City Police Inspector falls ill, shy, intellectual City Police Sergeant Slaughter is put on the case.

As a second gasworks murder across the Thames is revealed, Slaughter must secretly collaborate with a rival detective to prevent a horrible injustice. Are the two deaths connected? If Tommy was not the killer, who wanted two stokers dead?

Investigating a mysterious top-hatted man spying on the Bank of England, and a poor clerk whose wife is under arrest for pilfering, yields no clear leads. Amidst the rising tensions of trades unions and the dumping of noxious substances into the river, the case becomes desperate.

Slaughter realizes that his greatest challenge is his own insecurity, which sabotages his every move. Can he overcome his natural reticence in time to save young Tommy?