Margot detests shopping malls. Any distraction is welcome, and the woman, who has chained herself to the escalator, shouting about the perils of consumerism, is certainly that. She recognises Dot immediately from their time campaigning for womens rights, and further back still, to the heyday of the Sydney Push. Dot is in despair at the abandonment of the sisterhood, at the idea of pole dancing as empowerment...
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.