A terrifying new case for the Department of Unclassified Artefacts. Eddie, Liz, George and Sir William return to fight their greatest enemy yet in this nail-biting novel from the author of "The Death Collector" and "The Parliament of Blood". 'My friends and I have braved the horrors of the Shadow Chamber - its secret traps and snares. We have crawled through sewers to escape an inhuman killer. We have fought creatures of animated clay and feared for our lives in the hidden cellarage of the Emperor's Theatre have seen the poor souls whose brains have been replaced by mechanisms of clockwork. I have witnessed how they are entirely under the influence of an ancient curse. And now I have heard that the man I suspect to be our enemy is to perform his stage act at the Palace, by Royal Command'. Would he dare? Can he be so bold? Is the next victim of this grisly process intended to be the Queen Empress herself?