After a personal tragedy, Professor Alistair Quill left his life as a technological crimes investigator behind for a comfortable life in academia, only to be drawn back into a dangerous world of intrigue when an intercepted smuggling operation ends in a deadly explosion. He is joined by Professor Kimberly O’Neill, a trailblazing scientist whose revolutionary work on steam-based learning machines has been twisted into a weapon capable of reshaping the modern world. Their pursuit carries them across the Gilded Age American Midwest, over lakes and borders, aboard airships, and into clandestine factories.

Every answer exposes a deeper plot. Someone is building an empire of manipulation and blackmail behind the curtain of modern telegraphy, and will kill to protect it. Hunted by a brilliant but unhinged assassin with a taste for fire, and entangled with a powerful industrialist whose interests may not be what they seem, Quill and O’Neill must risk everything to stop a technology that could unravel democracy itself.

A sweeping steampunk mystery of intellect, adventure, and the perilous cost of progress. This Audible edition features immersive duet narration by Michael Isola and Aylia Colwell, bringing the mystery, adventure, and unforgettable characters of this steampunk thriller vividly to life.