The High Constable

A CITY WITH A HISTORY OF MURDER...

It is the winter of 1808 and hard times have struck the once bustling port of New-York. President Thomas Jefferson's embargo has marooned seamen in the streets and sent dockworkers to the poorhouse. But could it have led to murder? That is the question the city's top police official, the High Constable, wants coroner John Tonneman to answer. The chief suspect is the dead man's hot-tempered assistant, Tonneman's own son, Peter, currently missing along with $50,000. To prove his son innocent, Tonneman will need all the skill and expertise at his disposal, following a trail of blood and scandal that leads from a thirty-year-old series of brutal killings to the highest circles of' city government. But can the coroner and the constable unmask the real killer before he strikes again--this time much closer to home?