It is a most incredible sight: a corpse sitting at the reins of a hansom
cab-and not just any corpse, but the body of a peer of the realm. To
Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, this macabre apparition
seems like sheer lunacy. Who would ever want to exhume a decently buried
old chap like Lord Augustus Fitzroy-Hammond?
A doctor insists that Lord Augustus's death was natural. But as far as
the police are concerned, there's certainly nothing natural about any of
this gristly aftermath. Inspector Pitt is determined to unearth the
truth-even if the digging puts his own life at perilous risk.