A strong entry in the series and therefore not a quick read. Pitt and his wife are at the theater when an appeals court judge in the next box dies. One of his colleagues suggests the possibility of murder and Pitt is charged with investigating what turns out to be opium poisoning. The poisoning may or may not be connected to a five year old case where the convicted killer of a man crucified in a back alley is alleged to have been innocent -- a case the judge was contemplating reopening. Things are heavily mired in a strong vein of anti-Semitism, since the executed man was Jewish. And, of course, the social niceties and the class distinctions of British life in the Victorian era are ever-present. I became convinced I knew the who and the how and I was almost right but on the wrong case. A good mystery and a good look at the prejudices of society which seem never to change, only to wax and wane in terms of their popularity with the masses.