Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, and soon discovers a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club's handsome façade, and in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, 'the Napoleon of food,' a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity.


But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor and partner-in-crime Jeremiah Blake? And what if this first death was only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?