The wealthy, accomplished, popular, and vastly powerful Lord Justice Harold Stratford has a life most would envy. With his partner, barrister John Willow, he protects and controls the south of England. There is nothing-no rent unpaid or crime committed-to give him an inkling that something is about to go terribly wrong. When Sherlock Holmes is found brutally murdered alongside three other men in an abandoned house, Lord Stratford's world is shattered. While he is determined to seek full retribution from the highest justice, the only surviving witness to the murders is killed in his hospital bed. Worst of all, the motiveless crimes lack any evidence whatsoever. As more murders follow-each more ghastly than the last-Stratford struggles to retain his grip on the reins of power but, more importantly, his own good sense. With Holmes in his grave and Watson a broken man, it seems as if there is nothing to stop the hand behind it all. Even when it seems it cannot get worse, another more devastating murder looms in the background that may cost one man his life and another his sanity.