Vienna, 1931

When a wealthy American is found dead in a burning car in the Vienna Woods, police quickly dismiss it as suicide. But ambitious foreign correspondent Esme Carmichael is tipped off that it was murder. She summons historian Archie Laverick to the Austrian capital, where - still scarred by the Great War and under the guise of researching a famed general - he plunges with Esme into a perilous hunt for the truth.

Their investigation cuts through the glittering façades of a fragile nation. As the catastrophic failure of Austria's largest bank threatens to throw Europe into chaos, Archie and Esme must untangle a web of illicit affairs and stolen identities, navigating the treacherous, gossip-fuelled world of Vienna's elite journalists to unmask a cunning killer hiding in plain sight.