England, 1191. Since the death of her patron King Henry II, sleuthing pathologist Adelia Aguilar has retired, but trains her daughter Allie, already a healer, to carry on. When a friend in Ely falls ill, Allie goes to help, and finds that several girls there have vanished. A body is discovered, and when Allie inspects the corpse, she suspects a monstrous human predator is at work. Will her forensic training help her find the killer—despite the distraction of the dashing young Lord Peverill—or will Allie become the next victim? After Ariana Franklin passed away in 2011, her daughter Samantha Norman completed this final installment in the saga of Adelia Aguilar, which Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times deemed "an appropriate homage, a story featuring mother-and-daughter sleuths. The forensic procedures are appropriately grotesque (leeches, anyone?), and the period settings run to luscious details."