Early twentieth-century Singapore is a place where a person can
disappear, and Harriet Gordon hopes to make a new life for herself
there, leaving her tragic memories behind her--but murder gets in the
way.
**Singapore, 1910--**Desperate for a fresh start, Harriet Gordon finds
herself living with her brother, a reverend and headmaster of a school
for boys, in Singapore at the height of colonial rule. Hoping to gain
some financial independence, she advertises her services as a personal
secretary. It is unfortunate that she should discover her first client,
Sir Oswald Newbold--explorer, mine magnate and president of the
exclusive Explorers and Geographers Club--dead with a knife in his
throat.
When Inspector Robert Curran is put on the case, he realizes that he has
an unusual witness in Harriet. Harriet's keen eye for detail and strong
sense of duty interests him, as does her distrust of the police and her
traumatic past, which she is at pains to keep secret from the gossips of
Singapore society.
When another body is dragged from the canal, Harriet feels compelled to
help with the case. She and Curran are soon drawn into a murderous web
of treachery and deceit and find themselves face-to-face with a ruthless
cabal that has no qualms about killing again to protect its secrets.
