Recently returned from war, young Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax is grateful to be taken under the wing of the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society. The adopted son of a genteel London family, Edward was more often tolerated than loved by his distant mother and remorseful father, who took him on in order to make amends for a past of heartbreak and, above all, in exchange for the erasure of crushing debt. The military offered both purpose and escape for Edward, something he dreads he will not find at home. Only the curiously timely arrival of an old friend of Edward’s father offers Edward a new direction, and a new purpose that fits with his still untarnished ideals.

At the Gentlemen’s Speculative Society, Edward soon learns that a secret world flourishes beneath the surface of London’s society, a world of wondrous and terrible inventions and devices used to tip the balance of power in a long-running game of high-stakes intrigue. Through his intensive training, Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, an unwanted and lonely boy, becomes Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, Victorian super-assassin, fleeing across the Turkish countryside in steam-powered coaches and honing his fighting skills against clockwork opponents.

As Edward travels across Europe with a team of companions, all disguised as gentleman dandies on tour, he learns more about himself and the curious abilities he is gradually developing. He begins to wonder if there isn’t more going on than simple international intrigue, and if he and his companions are maybe part of a political and economic game stretching through the centuries. But, in the end, is it a game he can bring himself to play?

Edward Anton Bell-Fairfax, the idealistic assassin. Perhaps the most dangerous man alive.