A young actress probes into the shocking murder of a respected London theatre manager in the late Victorian literary mystery The Pale Cast of Death.
 
Catherine Healy’s sensibilities and imagination extend beyond the stage to the world of criminal investigation—for she has been well trained in such matters by her Irish father, who currently heads Dublin’s detective force. Unknown to the public and their fathers, Catherine is married to fellow actor and Englishman Jamie Millard, the son of a curmudgeonly though brilliant physician concerned primarily with post-mortem examination. As they begin their own investigation into the murder at The Acropolis Theatre, Catherine and Jamie run afoul of the disagreeable Denham Phillpotts, Scotland Yard's lead investigator. They soon discover not only a second murder but also a series of other mysteries involving a number of flawed, eccentric, disturbed, and dangerous characters.