A woman rising from a tomb. A deserted palazzo. A crime worthy of the Borgias.

Verona, late nineteenth century. Hugo Cranston, a young Englishman studying music under a local maestro, spends his nights wandering the moonlit city, until one evening his steps lead him to the old cemetery. There he glimpses a mysterious figure emerging from a tomb, follows her into the shadows, and becomes the unseen witness to a deed of darkness.

Determined to find the truth, Hugo is drawn into a web of secrets, deception and old passions as deep as Verona's own history, where nothing, and no one, is quite what they seem. Who is the creature of the night? And how can such a crime go undetected in an age of gaslight and reason?

Published in 1891 by Fergus Hume, author of the bestselling The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, this atmospheric fin-de-siècle tale blends Victorian detective fiction, Gothic chills and Italian romance. A perfect listen for lovers of classic mysteries, haunted settings and old-world suspense.