A sword, a book of music, and a murdered girl... Musician-sleuth Charles Patterson is called to a murder late one night - and is horrified to find he is acquainted with the victim, a young street-girl. There is little Patterson can do; his patron has arranged an engagement for him at a fashionable house party some miles away and he must leave early next morning. But where Patterson goes, trouble is never far behind. A chance meeting with an American at the house party raises new questions about the murder - then he is attacked twice for no apparent reason. And his personal life, in the form of Esther Jerdoun, the wealthy woman he loves against all of society's conventions, is becoming more and more complicated... 4th in the Charles Patterson series, set in early 18th century Newcastle.