sentences:  The author's first book published by Arkham House, the novel is the third in Blaylock's Steampunk series, following "The Digging Leviathan" (1984) and "Homunculus" (1986).A substantially different novelette version first appeared in the Mid-December 1985 issue of "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine".In Victorian London, Alice, the wife of scientist-explorer Langdon St. Ives, is murdered by his nemesis, the hunchback Dr. Ignacio Narbondo.