The Georgian terraces are rising. In the aftermath of the abolition of the slave trade, the port of Bristol is awash with the commercial gains of the Empire. But in the midst of all the grand building projects something is rotten at the heart of the city. The first victim is discovered. News of the mutilated body speeds quickly. And as further horrifically charred corpses are found, the new streets are gripped with a primal sense of fear. The city fathers decide to step in to suppress the rising panic. An innocent is drawn into the tangled net. A lowly legal clerk with a taste for coffee, Inigo Bright has been charged with investigating customs fees in the great port. Yet this routine investigation will drag him down in a net of violence and deception that puts not only his life but that of those closest to him in deadly danger...