The cynical and disaffected Ryzhkov returns, this time forced to investigate the disappearance of Russia's Imperial Family. Discovering where they have been held, he is already too latethe Tsar and his family have been murdered. But by whom? And is there any possibility that someone escaped? Is one of the family, somehow, still alive? In this dark sequel to Field of Mars, Miller uses the chaotic tension of revolutionary Russia to create a deeply atmospheric and absorbing thriller.