London, 1843. Pyke has been part of the Metropolitan Police's newly formed "Detective Bureau" for six-months. Unsurprisingly Pyke is confronted by faceless opponents within the Bureau and the New Police who don't like his unconventional methods, his criminal past, and his dubious law enforcement record. When the body of a policeman is found, it initially appears that the man has been killed while on duty in the course of a robbery that has gone wrong. But Pyke's investigations reveal that the policeman might have been murdered and the robbery offered as a ruse to cover up what really happened. Then a tavern landlord—and, as Pyke discovers, a former policeman—is killed and a connection to the dead policeman is unearthed: both joined the New Police at the same time and served under the same inspector in the East End.
