Fifteen years escaping magic. Now she's the killer's final act.

London, November 1893

A woman is found sawn in half in a narrow alley—her body laid inside a magician's coffin, hands folded in prayer, a white rose in her palms. Between her fingers: a playing card. The Jack of Hearts. Inked with a chilling message . . . The first of six.

Inspector Tobias Flint of Scotland Yard has spent fifteen years hunting killers—but nothing like this. The murder is no random act of violence. A macabre recreation of an illusion devised by the long-dead stage magician, the Magnificent Maguire.

For fifteen years, Jaqueline "Jack" Maguire has lived as a ghost. Presumed dead after the fire that killed her father, she has built a new life in the shadows. Now, as the secret force behind one of London's most formidable private investigation agencies, she protects the women society overlooks.

But when the Coffin Conjurer begins using her father's illusions as a blueprint for murder, Jack knows her past has finally caught up with her. After Inspector Flint catches her searching his office for clues to the killer's identity, he refuses to let the rare woman to pull one over on him disappear again. But in London's most murderous magic show, the Coffin Conjurer has always been ten steps ahead—and has already chosen the star of the final act . . . Jack Maguire.

Contains mature themes.