On the evening of 9th May 1911 a fire broke out backstage at the Empire Theatre, Edinburgh. The Great Lafayette; a spectacular illusionist and eight of his performers were consumed by the flames and as death shrouded the theatre, so a pall of mystery also surrounded the horrible events. Sherlock Holmes was called in to investigate what soon turns out to be yet another baffling mystery. Who and what had started the fire? Had it merely been a dreadful accident?

This is one of Holmes's most riveting mysteries and the reader will be transported to a magical world in which Holmes not only reveals all the true facts concerning the death of Lafayette but discovers what almost seems to be another world frozen in time and concealed beneath the theatre in hidden passageways and secret chambers.