The year is 1718. "A family is found butchered in a dismal room in the Rookery, London’s poorest district. Not even their small children are left alive. Most of the authorities pay scant attention, except for Thieftaker General Jonathan Wild. Intrigued by this development, Colonel Nathaniel Charters tasks his most trusted operative, Jonas Flynt, with discovering why. When another family is murdered just as brutally, Flynt uncovers evidence of a simmering conflict between rival gangs, with Wild seemingly desperate to keep a lid on the slaughter."