In Regency London, Hawk comes home distraught to Charlotte and Lord Wrexford after learning that Fletcher Campbell, his new drawing teacher, has been found murdered on Threadneedle Street.
Charlotte, an artist herself, doubts that the death was only a robbery turned violent, especially once she finds that a distinctive ring was taken from Campbell's finger.
Hawk's plea draws them into a case rooted in a decade-old scandal that nearly brought down the government: Campbell's brother had led a counterfeiting gang that swindled the Bank of England.
Most of the gang was caught, but forged banknotes are still a problem, and the Bank has offered ￡20,000 for an Inimitable Banknote that newly invented engineering methods would make impossible to copy.
The size of that prize puts even trusted people at risk, and one of Charlotte and Wrexford's closest friends soon falls under suspicion.
The further they press, the more the lies suggest that the real danger may already be uncomfortably near.
