1419. Rumours of a deadly haunting are spreading fast through Tallinn. A prostitute, a Flemish painter and a tower watchman all claimed to see a ghost on the notorious Rataskaevu Street. All three are now dead.Melchior Wakenstede, the famed apothecary and sleuth, is determined to uncover the truth. But one wrong move could spell death in this city rife with corruption. And as more bodies appear, Melchior's discoveries will prove more horrifying than any ghost story.



Indrek Hargla is one of Estonia's best-known and most prolific crime writers. Hargla's Apothecary Melchior Mysteries, set in fifteenth-century Tallinn and starring a detective pharmacist named Melchior Wakenstede, have been translated into five languages, adapted for stage and were the basis for a popular Estonian film trilogy. He is also a screenwriter and an award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy. Originally a senior lawyer in the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hargla has been a full-time writer since 2012. Christopher Moseley is a translator from Estonian, Latvian, Finnish and the Scandinavian languages. After nineteen years' service at the BBC, he became a freelance translator and editor in 2005. He has translated novels from Estonian by Andrus Kivirähk, Ilmar Taska, and most recently A.H. Tammsaare.



Those seeking a richly textured, intricately detailed, meticulously researched mystery...may have found their quarry