Jim Taylor, of Garland’s Detective Agency, has tumbled into a whirl of high-society danger and deceit. Industrialist Axel Bellman is about to be married into the aristocracy - he is the richest man in Europe, and his young bride looks as though she’d rather die……..Meanwhile Jim’s associate, Miss Sally Lockhart, is digging into things that a lot of people want to stay hidden. Together, their investigations are leading them to the heart of Bellman’s operation - and, eventually, to the terrifying secret of the Shadow in the North……….