James McGee

1812: Matthew Hawkwood, soldier turned spy, is stranded behind enemy lines, in America, a country at war with Britain. Heading for the safety of the Canadian border, with Major Douglas Lawrence, the two men uncover an American plot to invade Canada. If it is successful, the entire continent will be lost. The British authorities must be warned...

For a French prisoner of war, there is only one fate worse than the gallows: the prison ships guaranteed a sentence served in the most dreadful conditions. Escape, it's said, is impossible. Yet amid reports of a smuggling operation, the Royal Navy send two of its officers to investigate. But when they disappear without trace, the Navy turns to Bow Street for help. It's time to send in a man as dangerous as the prey. It's time to send in Bow Street Runner, Matthew Hawkwood…

October 1812: Britain and France are still at war. Meanwhile in London, Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood has been seconded to the foreign arm of the Secret Service. There, he meets the urbane Henry Brooke, who tells him he’s to join a colleague in Paris on a special mission. Failure would mean prison, torture and a meeting with the guillotine…

London, 1813: Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood is summoned to a burial ground and finds the corpse of a young woman murdered and cast into an open grave. His hunt for the killer will lead him from London's backstreets into the heart of a government determined to protect its secrets at all costs. Only Hawkwood's contacts within the criminal underworld can now help.

For London's grave robbers, death is a lucrative business. But it's the corpse they leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail. To hunt down those responsible, Hawkwood must venture into London's murkiest corners, where ever more gruesome discoveries await him.