When her father agrees to marry her to his friend’s son, Bethan is appalled. Her betrothed is even younger than she is, a stranger—and Scottish. In the end it will take seven long years for her groom to finally send for her, and when he does, it will be too late. Her father is dead, she is no innocent maiden anymore, and determined to take her life into her own hands.

"Gleason has vamped up the familiar world of Holmes and Watson...to paranormally exhilarating effect." —The New York Times

The girls are back! Evaline Stoker (sister of Bram) and Mina Holmes (niece of Sherlock) return in the fourth volume of the steampunk adventure series set in an alternate Victorian London. Ever since the debacle of the Chess Queen Enigma, Mina Holmes and Evaline Stoker have laid low, trying to settle back into their quiet lives as young ladies of London. But the Holmesian deductive abilities won't remain dormant for long, and when Mina receives a strange package from a winged, midnight visitor, she is catapulted into a new, mysterious adventure: the search for The Carnelian Crow.

What is real or only an illusion?

Ghostly images that appear and float across the stage, objects that levitate into the air, and a beautiful assistant who disappears inside a glass box, then reappears inside a second glass box. All while the audience at the Crystal Palace, including amateur investigator Mikaela Forsythe, watch the performance.

Is it real? Can the audience believe what they see?