New York Times bestselling author Deborah Crombie returns with a new novel in which Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James attempt to solve the shocking murder of a young woman before panic erupts in London. On a rainy November evening, medical student Sasha Johnson rushes through the crowd in historic Russell Square in London. From the darkness, someone jostles her as they pass by. A moment later, Sasha stumbles and collapses. When Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his Sergeant Doug Cullen are called to the scene, they discover she has been stabbed. Kincaid immediately calls in his detective wife Gemma James, who has recently been assigned to a task force addressing the rising knife crime. Along with her partner, Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot, Gemma supports the investigation. However, Sasha Johnson does not fit the profile of the typical victim of knife crime that the task force usually encounters. Single, successful, and career-oriented, she has no history of abusive relationships or gang affiliations. Yet Sasha had her secrets, and some of them lead the detectives uncomfortably close to her home. As the team unravels the victim's tangled connections, another murder heightens the pressure. Kincaid, Gemma, and their colleagues may even have to jeopardize friendships to find the killer who is lurking through the dark streets of Bloomsbury.