London, 1900. The capital hums with the energy of the new era, but something darker lurks beneath the surface. A monstrous figure stalks the city's criminal underworld at night, leaving a trail of bloody corpses in its wake. Rumors about the mysterious killer spread like wildfire. It's a demon. A phantom. An angel of vengeance.

Nothing can kill it. Nothing can stop it. And once it picks a new target, well, he better have a coffin picked out, because he's already dead.

The only clue that a baffled police force has to work with is the black and white feather left on each corpse, leading the press to dub the killer The Magpie.

Is the Magpie killing at random, or is there a pattern that no one else can see? Three individuals, strangers to each other, might together have the answer.

Madame Hendrikov, the Russian medium with an upper-class clientele desperate for the secrets of the dead.

Bess Turner, the East End barmaid caught up in the schemes of an organized crime gang.

And Ignatious Thorn, the world's most famous consulting detective, brought to ruin by horrific tragedy.