A study in revenge

"In the summer of 1893 in Portland, Maine, police detective Archie Lean follows a trail of ashen footprints to the site of a dead body. The victim is horribly scorched, and ominous occult symbols mark nearby walls. But what troubles Lean most is what he saw two days earlier: this same dead man being lowered into his grave without a burn mark on him. Perplexed by the diabolically staged scene, Lean turns for help to his onetime partner, the brilliant criminalist Perceval Grey. Grey faces problems of his own after agreeing to a wealthy bussinessman's deathbed plea to find his long-lost granddaughter. The dying man's family is more concerned with the recent theft of the thunder-stone, an obscure heirloom carved with curious symbols. As the family's shadowy history is revealed, the three mysteries intersect to draw Lean and Grey into a maze of murder, deceit, and revenge. Each deadly new clue points toward an even greater puzzle that will pit Grey against a devious murderer in a race to decipher the thundertone's riddle--and reveal an ancient secret that men will kill to possess."--Back cover.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.