Jim Taylor, consulting detective, gambler, bodyguard, writer and friend of Sally Lockhart, has been looking for Adelaide Bevan for a long time. He last saw her as a poor penniless waif disappearing into the smoky mists of London (at the end of The Ruby in the Smoke). So imagine his surprise when he does find her at last - a beautiful young woman and in the company of no less a personage than Prince Rudolf

of Eschtenburg, heir to the throne of Razkavia. 

Razkavia is a tiny independent kingdom at the heart of Europe with high mountains and dark forests.

The legend says that while the Red Eagle flag flics above the Rock of Eschtenburg, Razkavia will be free.

But dark forces are circling and the Prince andAdelaide and the kingdom itself are in peril. Adelaide

Jim and their new friend Becky soon find themselves travelling to Razkavia- into the heart of the danger. Pullman writes the kind of real high adventure that everybody is looking for and can never find and it doesn't come much higher or more

beautifully told than this.