Soon after Sally Lockhart's father drowns at sea, she receives an anonymous letter.

The dire warning it contains makes a man die of fear at her feet.

Determined to discover the truth about her father's death, Sally is plunged into a terrifying mystery in the dark heart of Victorian London, at the centre of which lies a deadly blood-soaked jewel.

Philip Pullman's ever-popular, action-packed Victorian melodramas are rejacketed for the bicentenary of Charles Dickens in 2012.