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Synopsis

Ever since the Luftwaffe started trying to bomb the East End to smithereens, Hancocks, in common with every other undertaking business east of Piccadilly, has been working flat out.

Undertaker Francis Hancock is no stranger to death and, during the London Blitz of 1940, he has seen the worst that humanity can do to itself. Why then does the murder of a young gypsy girl in Epping Froest move him so much?

She is one of many dispossessed citizens inhabiting this stretch of open ground - travellers, gypsies, the homeless, those who have been persecuted because of their nationality, deserters and, if the Military Police are to be believed, German spies.

Francis knows it's not wise to delve much deeper into this human melting pot, but he is drawn to the exotic customs of the gypsies, their music and magic, and the flame of their compassion that lights up a world growing cold with suffering.

But as he further investigates the slaughter of the girl, the heat of a much bigger conspiracy begins to burn like an incendiary bomb, until many more are dead. Francis finds himself getting very close to something even the German Fuehrer, personally, is prepared to kill for...