Notes on Wagner and Greenwood

A series of carefully planned deaths, like two drops of ink dripping on the European continent, shocked Vienna and London respectively. August von Wagner, a former court physician who advocated toxicology and handwriting analysis, discovered a scarlet postmark pointing to the core of imperial power on the body of a postal official; while Eleanor Greenwood, the first female detective specially hired by Scotland Yard, deciphered the death code written with chemical ink in the corpse package on the banks of the Thames. When the investigation deepened, they found that all the clues - from the sophisticated murder mechanism in the Crystal Palace of the Exposition to the poisonous murder notice in the Schönbrunn Palace concert score; from the special paints provided by the palace painter to the cruise acquisition of the financial giant - were connected by an invisible thread. A man behind the scenes who calls himself "director" is using superb disguise skills, sophisticated mechanical design and profound cryptography to turn two cities into his bloody stages, staging "death performances" targeting specific audiences. Wagner's calm reasoning and Greenwood's scientific analysis join forces for the first time. They must see through the disguises and interpret every bloody note left by the "director" before the next death knell rings. In this intellectual competition across the two cities, they not only have to face an opponent with superior intelligence and mysterious motives, but also have to contend with the undercurrents of class persistence, technological ethics and the twilight of the empire that surge under the bright surface of the entire era. When the final bell of the 19th century is about to ring, who is the one who mourns the funeral of the old era?