<p>October 1831: Britain is in turmoil. Bodies in Bath, burnings in Bristol, and the wicked in great power, spreading like the green bay tree.</p><p>Nathaniel Parry arrives in Bath to investigate and is drawn into deeper waters than those provided in the steaming baths. In the social masquerade few are quite what they seem, and the higher they are, the murkier their depths. Politicians, bankers and traders jostle for power and the greatest prizes of all are to be won in the exotic Far East. Murder, opium and slaver, not to mention the attractions of the Bath beauties, will tax his powers to the limit but he is as well prepared as he is going to be. He's got a pair of pistols, a swordstick and his dog.</p><p>Here is a tale about a time that was neither comfortable nor safe, but brimming with possibility and risk. </p><p>In 1831, as now, a close inspection of the moral high ground tends to reveal quicksand rather than rock. </p><p>Britain had outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, but slaves could still be owned and traded in the Empire. </p><p>Opium was legal in Britain but British merchants traded it relentlessly and illegally in China, despite the growing anger and desperation of the Chinese authorities.</p><p>This novel is the first volume of a trilogy featuring Nathaniel Parry. The trilogy spans the 1830s from the early days of domestic riot to the outbreak of the Opium War with China, serving up the passions, delights and evils of the time.</p>