Nicholas Chambers

A detective has to journey into the dark heart of his modern metropolis to investigate a routine murder, but finds the secret truth behind an ancient myth.

15 years after a global apocalypse, mankind is on the verge of extinction. Civilisation no longer exists, food is scarce and most eke out a living by stealing and killing. One boy clings onto life in the desolate British countryside, where staying away from others has been key to his survival. But this self-imposed isolation comes to an abrupt end when he crosses paths with another group of survivors and faces an enemy far more savage than any of them could imagine.

In 1906, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, having lost his first wife, was overcome with grief; even Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson refused his call. It was only when his secretary, Woodie, presented him with an apparent real-life miscarriage of justice, that he could be roused to action. The case in question was that of George Edalji, a Parsee solicitor, who was imprisoned for writing obscene letters and killing livestock in Great Wyrley, Staffordshire. George needed Arthur's help to clear his name. However, as the twists and turns of the case unfold, Arthur himself questions George's innocence. It is only by finding the true culprit, that Arthur can finally put the case, and his grief, to rest; whilst simultaneously becoming influential in a major reform to the English judicial system.