scheme! The thieving Fitzglen family are back in this second instalment of the spellbinding Theatre of Thieves gothic mystery series set in Victorian England.

London, 1908. The Fitzglens, one of London's leading theatre families and part-time thieves, are plotting their next scheme when they receive terrible news about Great Uncle Montague. He's been killed in a tragic accident at his Notting Hill home.

Montague will be much missed, not just for his talent in art forgery, but his death provides an unlooked-for opportunity: the chance to search for his infamous iron box. No one knows what it contains - if, that is, it even exists - but Jack Fitzglen is certain it has to be something highly valuable . . . or extremely dangerous. Why else would the grand master of storytelling have refused to even drop a hint?

Jack is amazed when he finds the box - and even more amazed by its contents. An unknown play by one of Ireland's leading playwrights, entitled The Murderer Inside the Mirror. Jack reads the first few pages, and is struck by a nameless feeling of dread. But even he has no idea what kind of dangerous adventure the manuscript will take him on - one which will tangle him in revenge, madness . . . and murder.

This unsettling gothic historical mystery, following Chalice of Darkness, will appeal to fans of Daphne du Maurier, Laura Purcell, Rebecca James, Sarah Waters and Stuart Turton.