July 1767. John Rawlings adopts an aristocratic identity and a dubious Irish accent in order to infiltrate the circle associated with Sir Francis Dashwood and the notorious gatherings at Medmenham Abbey. What begins as an investigation of scandal among the elite becomes a murder case when one of the guests is found dead inside a household where Rawlings cannot safely reveal who he is.
A second death confirms that the danger is not merely part of the mythology surrounding the so-called Hellfire Club. Rawlings has to continue performing his invented role while questioning people accustomed to wealth, secrecy and political influence, including a former lover who can expose him. The novel uses the real reputation of Dashwood’s circle but places its detective plot in the uncertain space between documented Georgian libertinism and the darker legends later attached to Medmenham.
