Book excerpt: Having just finished his apprenticeship, apothecary John Rawlings is celebrating in Vaux Hall Gardens when he trips over the body of a young girl. Hauled before the magistrate as the prime suspect, Rawlings clears his own name and so impresses the magistrate John Fielding that he is asked instead to investigate the crime. From gaming hell to fashion house, Rawlings follows a trail of lust and intrigue which unearths a dangerous past of threatening secrets.