The mystery begins with a late-night call to Dr. John Strangeways: a woman in shock, a bruise on her throat, a name that isn't her own. When she reveals herself as Angelina Frood, the doctor's curiosity becomes something darker, fear. Her husband is a morphine addict with violent tendencies, a man whose "treatment" of his beautiful young wife has left marks before. As Strangeways investigates, he realizes the danger is real, the secrets are layered, and he may need the legendary Dr. Thorndyke, master of medical jurisprudence, to untangle what really happened that night. Freeman builds tension like a physician examining a pulse: methodically, precisely, with the reader dreading what the diagnosis will reveal.
