Sequel to: The murder of Mary Russell.

A June summer's evening, on the Sussex Downs, in 1925. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are called in when an old friend's aunt fails to return following a supervised outing from Bedlam. The last thing Russell wants is to deal with the mad, and yet, she can't say no. The Lady Vivian Beaconsfield has spent most of her adult life in one asylum after another, yet she seemed to be improving-- or at least, finding a point of balance in her madness. So why did she disappear? Did she take the family's jewels with her, or did someone else? The trail leads through a lunatic asylum's stony halls to the warm Venice lagoon, where beauty is jarred by Mussolini's Blackshirts, where the gilded Lido set may be tempting a madwoman, and where Cole Porter sits at a piano, playing with ideas. -- adapted from back cover.