Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all of her courage to escape, but Paris is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud is hired by Christian Morel as a companion to his beautiful, young sister, Sylvie. As Maud is drawn further into the Morels' world of elegant luxury, their secrets become hers.

A woman is found dead, and an incoherent man covered in blood is found next to her body. She is a beloved lady of the German court, and he is a well-known Englishman with connections. Those connections happen to involve being the brother-in-law of Harriet Westerman, a woman who isn’t scared off easily and is always ready to investigate a murder, especially if it involves a member of her family. With her friend Gabriel Crowther’s help, a new investigation begins.

For years, reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther has pursued his forensic studies --- and the occasional murder investigation --- far from his family estate. But an ancient tomb there will reveal a wealth of secrets. When laborers discover an extra body inside, the lure of the mystery brings Crowther home at last.

London, 1781. Harriet Westerman anxiously awaits news of her husband, a ship's captain who has been gravely injured in the king's naval battles with France. As London's streets seethe with rumor, a body is dragged from the murky waters of the Thames.

INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS is an intricate historical page-turner about a forbidding country estate and the unlikely forensic duo who set out to uncover its deadly secrets.