It is the summer of 1891 and a young, beautiful bride is snatched from her wedding, leaving her guests shocked and her new husband distraught. A search is hurriedly mounted, but as each minute passes the trail grows colder. In angry desperation they turn to Scotland Yard.In Victorian London, Detective Inspector Solomon Dearborn has been crumbling under the failures of the Jack the Ripper investigation. Reluctantly he and his young assistant, Detective Sergeant Sparrowhawk, turn their attention to the missing Somerset bride. The crux of this mystery, though, is that it has all happened before . . .From Fleet Street to the moors, Dearborn and Sparrowhawk endeavour to find the truth behind this dark and difficult crime.Previously titled A Portrait of Barbara.