In April 1759, John Rawlings and his new wife travel to Devon for their honeymoon, but the discovery of Juliana van Guylder’s battered body aboard an apparently deserted ship brings the holiday to an abrupt end. Her brother then disappears, leaving Rawlings with an assortment of unsettling clues that include a secretive Society of Angels, a highwayman and stories of a phantom coach.
Rawlings calls on Joe Jago and the Flying Runners as the case becomes increasingly dangerous. The coastal setting and wartime year give the mystery an atmosphere of uncertainty in which rumours, smuggling routes and fear of outsiders can obscure ordinary human violence. Rawlings has to separate superstition from evidence while his determination to solve the crime places both his new marriage and his own safety under pressure.
