In Regency London, an elopement is always fodder for gossip. But this time it may be cover for murder...Harriet Roth, a bookish spinster, lives a quiet, unassuming life; Tristram Gresham, a noted composer and even more noted roué, flaunts his disreputable reputation. When the two of them disappear, the scandalous implications are obvious to London's beau monde. But former spies Mélanie and Malcolm Rannoch, who are friends of both Harriet and Gresham, are sure something more complicated than an elopement is afoot. Especially because Harriet and Gresham left behind the dead body of an infamous international assassin in Gresham's fashionable bachelor rooms. How the missing couple were connected to the assassin is as puzzling as who killed him - and what brought him to London in the first place. But neither the quiet Harriet nor the rakish Gresham is what they seemed. Both are harboring secrets that people will kill to uncover. Trying to help their missing friends, the Rannochs enter a deadly game that runs from London's glamorous diplomatic community to the corridors of power in Westminster and Whitehall. Even Almack's exclusive assembly rooms hold deadly dangers-and avoiding scandal suddenly seems less important than simply staying alive...

Tracy Grant studied British history at Stanford University and received the Firestone Award for Excellence in Research for her honors thesis on shifting conceptions of honor in late-fifteenth-century England. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter, four cats, and a gecko. In addition to writing, Tracy is Executive Director of Cantare, an organization dedicated to sharing the power and beauty of choral music through adult choirs, youth programs, and concert performances. Her real-life heroine is her daughter Mélanie, who is very supportive of Mummy's writing and has become a writer herself. Tracy is currently at work on her next book chronicling the adventures of Malcolm and Mélanie Suzanne Rannoch. Visit her online at tracygrant.org.