Looker-On

A London crime reporter known for spinning mystery into front-page sensation stumbles onto a case stranger than any he has ever invented. In an abandoned house a hidden telegraph instrument taps out coded messages in the small hours, a young woman has disappeared, and the police can make nothing of it.

As he digs deeper, the affair reaches into his own life-touching the woman he loves and the celebrated foreign correspondent he counts as his closest friend. Behind the headlines lies a web of secret signalling, hidden identities, and a double life carried on beneath the gaslight of Edwardian England.

From Fleet Street newsrooms to seaside towns and shadowed theatres, the trail leads through chases, betrayals, and revelations that force him to choose between the story of his career and the people he trusts most. The truth, when it comes, proves more dangerous than any sensation the papers could print.