In 1871, a police constable stumbled upon a brutalized young woman and gaped in horror as she collapsed in the mud and slipped into a coma. Five days later, she died. Officers of the Greenwich Division got involved in the investigation, and Scotland Yard sent one of its top detectives to lead it. The police discovered the girl's identity: she was a maid in the house of the renowned Pook family - - and she was two months' pregnant with Edmund Pook's child when she died. Using modern forensic science and a surprisingly abundant collection of primary sources, Murphy aims to re-create the drama of the case as it unfolded, from the discovery of the body to the final crack of the gavel-- and beyond.