Thomas Pitt, the best inspector of the London police, has finally received the long-awaited promotion—he has become a superintendent. But it didn’t last long: Lady Fortune’s smile was short-lived. For the new head of the Bow Street precinct was dropped a case so complicated and scandalous that, without solving it, Thomas risked losing everything. Right in the heart of London, in Hyde Park, a body was discovered… without a head. The victim—Captain of Her Majesty’s Fleet, Winthrop—had not been seen in anything disreputable, and he had no enemies. The case was immediately placed under the highest supervision, and Pitt fully felt what “hard pressure from above” is like. Meanwhile, dreadful rumors about the Hyde Park Butcher spread through society—especially after another decapitated corpse was found almost in the same place…