In Oxford’s All Souls College, Isaac Holland is pitted against the brightest of Britain’s young elite for a seat amongst the prestigious school’s faculty. The Victorian Era is reaching its apex, and the ancient hallways and corridors of Oxford teem with ghosts and secret societies. Isaac finds the competition increasingly cutthroat and diabolical, but there are more pressing concerns. One, that someone—or something—is murdering Isaac’s fellow students, one by one, in ways more gruesome than the next. And two, that Isaac’s real name is actually Irene Adler.

A retelling of Sherlock Holmes from the perspective of the one woman to ever outwit him, A Beautiful and Terrible Murder follows Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes as they are forced to work together to hunt down a murderer at Oxford who is killing their classmates.