This is the second Eisenmenger forensic mystery. How did Millicent Sweet come to die in such a horrible manner? Her autopsy suggests multiple cancers, but that is unheard of, especially in one so young. Someone doesn't want that finding to be public, so the pathologist who performed the autopsy - Mark Hartman - is blackmailed into falsifying his conclusions. John Eisenmenger, who is still recovering from the events described in A FEAST OF CARRION, is enlisted by Helena Flemming to dig further into the death. They uncover a conspiracy that involves a new and potentially devastating weapon; it is a conspiracy that ruthless men will do anything to keep hidden...