Superintendent Thomas Pitt cannot immediately ascertain exactly what segment of society the dead man riding the morning tide of the Thames came from, but the sight of him is unforgettable. Is he, as Pitt fears, a French diplomat who has gone missing? Or merely someone who greatly resembles him?

"Now living in a houseboat on the River Thames, Lacey Flint is becoming a part of London's weird and wonderful riverboat community. But at dawn one hot summer morning, Lacey finds the body of a shrouded young woman in the river. She assumes it was chance--after all she's recently joined the marine policing unit--but further investigation leads her team to suspect it was deliberately left for her to find. She is no longer a detective, but as she begins...

"When Thomas Pitt is tasked with playing bodyguard to Sofia Delacruz, a young and controversial British preacher who has been living in Spain and has returned to England on a mysterious errand, he thinks it's a waste of Special Branch's time and resources. But when kidnappers manage to reach Sofia murdering two of her companions in the process. Pitt learns that the message the lovely evangelist was meant to deliver was far more urgent than he knew....