In a German town, long ago, lives a tooth-puller’s boy called Klaus. It isn’t Klaus’s fault that he sees his master steal a diamond from the mouth of a dead man in Frau Drecht’s lodging house, or that Frau Drecht and her murderous son want it for themselves.

He has nothing to do with the Jesuit priest and his Aztec companion who turn up out of the blue looking for it, or the Professor of Anatomy who takes such a strange interest in it. No, Klaus doesn’t want any trouble.

But when he finds himself with the diamond in his pocket, things really can’t get much worse – that is, until the feathered man appears. Then they become a matter of life . . . and death.



A gripping and frightening story with an ending that leaves the reader wanting more.
Clare PooleThe Bookseller

We are taken on a journey through dark alleyways and encounter menacing characters, all in search of a diamond found in a corpse's mouth ... the feathered man adds to the intrigue and momentum of the book. Not for the faint-hearted but this is a book for those with a sense of the macabre.
Vanessa LewisThe Bookseller

A thrilling, dark and exciting tale of gothic proportions.
Clare PooleThe Bookseller