S. W. Perry paints a colourful picture of late Elizabethan London. He provides the detail for the reader to orient herself in the present day capital city of England. He covers picturesque snippets of street life and palace chambers equally, slipping in unobtrusive explanations just sufficient to invite the reader to feel a contemporary. This knowledge includes, unfortunately, grisly descriptions of an execution and a distinct feeling of danger. The cover follows the distinctive syle and motifs of this historical crime series.