The Reckoning

Hawkwood is back in London and in need of help, so he turns to his old friend, Nathaniel Jago.  A body has been found in a newly prepared grave.  It is not the body that was supposed to be buried there.  It is that of a young woman.  The pathologist, Dr. Quill, shows Hawkwood a distinctive tattoo on the body, which may help to identify her.  Later he shows Hawkwood a word that had been carved into her stomach.

In need of further help, Hawkwood turns to Dr. Robert Locke at Bedlam.  Locke assures him that the killer has likely struck in the past and is sure to strike again.

Jago finds out that the tattoo of a rose on the victim’s shoulder is actually intended as a brand; the girl belonged to a madame who runs an upscale bawdy house.  When he questions Eleanor Rain about the missing girl, he gets no positive answers, but she assessed him quite accurately.

Later, Hawkwood learns from another escort that, indeed there is a missing woman from that establishment.  Ezra Twigg, the clerk at Bow Street, is able to provide Hawkwood with four files of similar murders from across London.

When another girl from the same establishment is found murdered in the same manner of the first, with the killer having committed suicide nearby, it seems the case is closed.  However, Jago points to the fact that the suicide had suffered a severe cut to his hand and could never have held a pistol in it to be able to commit suicide.  The killer is still out there!  However, the Home Secretary has pressured Chief Magistrate Read to shut down the investigation.

But will Read and Hawkwood do as they are told?  What ensues is fast paced action involving Hawkwood and his crony, Jago.  It is an exciting read, and hard to put down.