Under the Dragon's Tail

WHERE SECRETS DWELL

Women rich and poor came to her, desperate and in dire need of discretion. And though Dolly Merishaw tended to their unfortunate circumstances in secret, her contempt and greed bred nothing but fear and loathing in the hearts of her clients. So it's no shock to detective William Murdoch when this malicious woman is murdered. What is a surprise, though, is the young boy found dead in Dolly's squalid kitchen a week after her demise. Now, Murdoch isn't sure if he's hunting one murderer or two.

The investigation takes Murdoch into Victorian Toronto's disparate social circles--from the dingy rooms of dancehall girls and the chaste parlors of temperance-touting citizens to the fine drawing rooms of the city's prestigious elite. The more he learns about Dolly and her clientele, the longer his lists of suspects and motives grows. Clues lead him to several unlikely suspects--all of whom have secrets from their pasts linking them to Dolly and what she malevolently called her "record of sins."