Nigella Parker, Detective Inspector with the City Police, has a deep-rooted fear of fire and a talent for solving arson cases. When a charred figure is found curled beside Sir Christopher Wrenâs Monument to the Great Fire of London, Nigella is dragged into a case pitting her against a murderous artist creating sculptures using burnt flesh.
Nigella partners with Colm OâLeary of Scotland Yard to track the arsonist across greater London. The pair are more than colleaguesâthey were lovers until OâLeary made the mistake of uttering three little words. But their past isnât the only buried history as they race to connect the dots between an antique nail pulled from a dead manâs hands and a long-forgotten architect dwarfed by the lifeâs work of Sir Christopher Wren.
Wren, one of Londonâs most famous architects, is everywhere the pair turn. Digging into his legacy leads the DCIs into the coldest of cold cases: a search for a bookseller gone missing during the Great Fire of London. More than 350 years earlier, while looking for their friend, a second pair of detectivesâa lady-in-waiting to the Queen and a royal fireworks makerâdiscovered foul play in the supposedly accidental destruction of St. Paulâs Cathedral. But did that same devilry lead to murder? And can these centuries-old crimes help catch a modern-day murderer?
As Nigella and OâLeary rush to decode clues, Londonâs killer-artist sets his sights on a member of the investigative team as the subject of his next fiery masterpiece.