York, England: June 1940

While Jemma continues to search for her missing husband, the citizens of historic York are shocked by a series of vicious crimes at the city's two museums.

A bungled break-in at the Yorkshire Museum is quickly followed by the brutal murder of Lance Richards, a sub-curator at the neighboring Castle Museum.

The main suspect is Anthony Gill, a quiet and unprepossessing clerk. But Gill doesn't have an alibi and is uncooperative with the police. His desperate lawyer hires Jemma and Bobbie from Smoke & Cracked Mirrors to prove his innocence.

Meanwhile, the two women are led a merry dance by Jodie, a famous and spirited actress, whose aristocrat husband wants evidence for a divorce.

As the nation waits nervously to hear the fate of their sons and brothers trapped at Dunkirk, a twisting series of events whisk Jemma and Bobbie through the glamourous world of the starlet, down corridors of dusty fossils, and into terrifying danger.

Vengeful passions and a dark crime lie beneath the civilized veneer of those elders who preserve our history. But if Anthony Gill didn't murder Lance Richards, who did—and why?