It is a most incredible sight: a corpse sitting at the reins of a hansom cab-and not just any corpse, but the body of a peer of the realm. To Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte, this macabre apparition seems like sheer lunacy. Who would ever want to exhume a decently buried old chap like Lord Augustus Fitzroy-Hammond?

A doctor insists that Lord Augustus's death was natural. But as far as the police are concerned, there's certainly nothing natural about any of this gristly aftermath. Inspector Pitt is determined to unearth the truth-even if the digging puts his own life at perilous risk.