As a serial killer stalks the streets of 1921 Philadelphia, a heartbroken debutante teams up with a handsome veteran of the Great War to find his missing sister…not realizing that he harbors a secret that will change her life forever.
After spending years in California recovering from her deadly bout with Influenza, Edie Shippen returns home to Philadelphia to find her childhood sweetheart engaged to her twin sister. Heartbroken and adrift, Edie vows to begin living her life as a modern woman—and the hell with anyone who gets in her way.
Gilbert Lawless returned home from the Great War nearly three years ago, but his mind refuses to leave the trauma of the trenches. To cope, he has abandoned his medical practice and hidden himself away in the office of Philadelphia’s Coroner, where he is content to work with the dead and mind his own business. But as three dead young women come into the morgue–each drugged, mutilated, bearing evidence of electrocution and connected to the powerful Shippen family–Gilbert becomes convinced a killer is on the loose. When his sister goes missing, he risks his career and the well-being of his family to beg help of the one person who will hear him out: his sister’s employer, Edie Shippen.
Edie and Gilbert soon find themselves in the path of a monster. As they follow the trail through illegal speakeasies, high-class parties, and the seedy underground of organized crime, they find themselves risking their hearts — and their lives — to stop a killer who is closer to them than either dared imagine.