Eighteenth-century London judge Sir John Fielding and his assistant, thirteen-year-old Jeremy Proctor, investigate the murders of a publisher and his family.

Off Cape Town in 1767, the captain of a British frigate drowns in a storm and a lieutenant is accused of pushing him overboard. Sir John Fielding, a blind magistrate, is given the case, helped by his 14-year-old assistant who narrates this tale.

First of a series featuring Sir John Fielding, a magistrate who in the 18th Century co-founded London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners. The narrator is Jeremy Proctor, a 13-year-old orphan who serves as Fielding's eyes. Fielding is blind. The series opens with the "suicide" of a lord known for his gambling and extra-marital affairs.