"[Baker's] a fine prose stylist with a skeptical intelligence and a black sense of humor." --The Los Angeles Times Book Review "Baker's Company novels are a monumental achievement of imagination and whimsy." --Starlog Recently returned from war, young Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax is grateful to be taken under the wing of the Gentleman's Speculative Society. At the 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 Alton Bell-Fairfax, unwanted and lonely boy, becomes Edward Alton 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 Alton Bell-Fairfax, the idealistic assassin.

Perhaps the most dangerous man alive.