A richly atmospheric, labyrinthine new novel from bestselling author Robert McCammon, whose epic masterwork of colonial witch-hunt terror, Speaks the Nightbird, was hailed by Sandra Brown as "deeply satisfying … told with matchless insight into the human soul."

Now the hero of that spellbinding novel begins a stunning adventure as a young law clerk in eighteenth-century New York, where a killer wields a bloody and terrifying power over a bustling city carving out its identity.

The unsolved murder of a respected doctor has sent ripples of fear throughout a city teeming with life and noise and commerce. Who snuffed out the good man's life with a slash of a blade on a midnight street? The local printmaster has labeled the fiend "the Masker," adding fuel to the volatile mystery … and when the Masker claims a new victim, earnest, hardworking Matthew Corbett is lured into a maze of forensic clues and heart-pounding investigation that will test his natural penchant for detection and inflame his hunger for justice.

In the strangest twist of all, the key to unmasking the Masker may await in an asylum where The Queen of Bedlam reigns … and unlocking her secrets will lead Matthew to not only the answers he seeks but chilling truths he cannot escape.