Sir Owain Lancaster is either a madman or a monster, sent away to Bedlam in London in 1912 in this second occult thriller for Sebastian Becker (following The Kingdom of Bones), and Becker"s role as special investigator for the Master of Lunacy, is to determine which is true. Sir Owain"s sanity has been in question ever since a disastrous Amazonian adventure killed his family and colleagues. However, when two local children are found brutally slain, Lancaster claims that the same dark forces that devastated his expedition have followed him home. "The finest British writer of bestselling popular fiction since le Carré.... [Stephen] Gallagher, like le Carré, is a novelist whose themes seem to reflect something of the essence of our times, whose skill lies in embedding those themes in accessible plots."-Independent (London) "Set in England in 1912, this masterful whodunit from Gallagher (Red, Red Robin) introduces Sebastian Becker [as] a former policeman and Pinkerton agent who now works as the special investigator to the Masters of Lunacy, looking into cases involving any "man of property" whose sanity is under question.... Gallagher"s superior storytelling talents bode well for future adventures starring the well-rounded Becker."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)