"There is no Light without Darkness, nor Substance without Shadow." This statement comes from Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Sir Christopher Wren, who has been charged with building seven churches in London as beacons of the Enlightenment. However, Dyer has a sinister plan: at the heart of each church lies a dark secret, with the aim of creating an intimidating architecture that will stand the test of time. Two hundred and fifty years later, London detective Nicholas Hawksmoor investigates a series of gruesome murders on the sites of certain eighteenth-century churches—crimes that seem inexplicable to the modern mind… "Chillingly brilliant… sinister and stunningly well executed," wrote the Independent on Sunday. Peter Ackroyd, born in London in 1949, is a writer, biographer, and historian. He was literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for The Times, and is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including a biography of Dickens and London: The Biography. He lives in London.