D.C.I. Cardinal's plans to smash the gang of his old adversary Gus Clifford are thwarted by the discovery of a dead man in Northumberland. He assigns D.S. Grout to investigate the murder while he continues to lead the hunt for Clifford. Grout's investigation begins at Hadrian's Wall, but a second murder leads both men to the center of an international art-smuggling organization on the Bodensee. Cardinal and Grout must uncover the identity of the killer before he strikes again, and stop the Clifford gang.

In old age Edwin James looks back over his scandalous life in the law and the theatre: he recalls his rise to fame and fortune which begins as a debt-ridden counsel in the case arising from the Running Rein scandal of the 1844 Derby. Humiliated in court and blocked by the machinations of the Victorian Establishment he begins his hunt for the missing witness and the Derby winner which has been spirited away. Aided by ex-convict Ben Gully, he probes in the dark belly of the London underworld while at the same time trying to avoid his creditors. He is faced with a suicide, and a murdered corpse hidden in the London sewers, before he seeks the final deadly truth in the foggy dockyards along the river, only to discover the truth may not be all it seems and old scandals can rise up to engulf him...

Edwin James reaches the height of his professional career in the law when, on the brink of being knighted, legal scandals and debt force him to flee England with his new bride and attempt to establish a new career in America. There, his involvement with the most sensational actress of the day soon destroys his marriage, and he quickly finds himself recruited into Colonel Lafayette Baker's Secret Detective Service investigating Fenian activity in New York's hell-hole, the Five Point. And it isn't long before he joins forces with former political assassin, Carlos Rudio, in the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln. Forced to work with corrupt judges and policemen in New York he becomes involved with the most notorious fraudsters of the day, and always in the background lie the lurking dangers that arise from the shadows of his scandalous past, shadows that threaten to rise up and engulf him once more...

When Eric Ward and Sharon Owen defend suspected serial killer Raymond Conroy, they win an acquittal on a technicality thus incurring the wrath of CI Charlie Spate. Ward has no desire to act further for Conroy when the man decides to remain in the north east. Instead he concentrates on issues arising from Sharon's family trust, though harassed by a journalist who seeks to interview Conroy. But when Conroy disappears, and the Zodiac Killer strikes again, this time on Tyneside, Ward finds himself involved once more, alongside CI Spate who is under pressure for his apparent incompetence in tracking Conroy. Complications arise from mysterious dealings in Scotland in the seventies, but it is only during a murderous climax in a remote Northumberland farmhouse that the truth finally emerges in the hunt for the Zodiac Killer.

A TRAIL OF SHADOWS… It's the chance of two lifetimes for antiquities expert Arnold Landon. He's tracked down an ancient, long-vanished statuette of Artemis straight to one of Europe's most infamous art thieves. Finding the piece for an artifact-recovery organization will help him make history for once instead of watching it pass by from his uneventful job. But when the thief is brutally murdered and the Artemis again disappears, Arnold discovers that the statuette's dark backstory as Nazi plunder and Soviet atrocity barter is anything but past.… Arnold races to uncover clues through a maze of historical lies and bureaucratic obstruction. He'll face down witnesses skilled at turning the truth into official fiction—and trust into a weapon. And when two more killings put his career and his organization's very existence on the line, he'll have no choice but to bait a merciless adversary with an irresistible prize…his life.

As his rise in the legal profession accelerates, Edwin James seeks to further enhance his prospects by obtaining a seat in Parliament. However, James finds that he must first act as an election agent in what is quickly seen as the most corrupt election in mid-Victorian England. In spite of the powerful backing of senior politicians, including the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, he finds he is still dogged by old scandals and unforgiving enemies. Burdened by increasing debt, James is suspected of being involved in the mysterious death of an old enemy, Lord George Bentinck, and the apparent suicide of the greatest swindler of the day, banker John Sadleir. As he reaches the heights of his profession and finally obtains his seat in Parliament, he finds he is still tainted by the breaths of suspicion that might yet bring about his downfall...