The third book in the Matthew Corbett series. New York, 1702. A city of sin and crime. A city where corpses pulled from the Hudson or found in dark alleyways surprise and frighten no one. There is always a reason for murder — a reason that the maniac Tyranus Slaughter does not have. He is kept in the most secure asylum for the insane in the New World. His extradition is demanded by the "mother of the British colonies" — England. But… Matthew Corbett and his partner from a New York detective agency make a mistake — and Slaughter breaks free. Matthew believes it is his duty to capture the maniac. Yet what exactly is this terrifying man, in whom a sharp mind combines with obvious madness?..