Leonard wants to bequeath his tattooed skin to the National Gallery of Australia. He has been almost completely inked by one of Australia's best contemporary artists, but he is a canvas that nobody wants. Strange things start happening to Leonard, Darwin's moth, a tattoo from his calf, flutters around him one night, he wakes with a Cold War gas mask on his head, Mao Tse Tung appears in his bed. Tattoos from his skin come alive before him and he becomes more convinced than ever that his skin is truly precious.

With a dead mum and an abandoning father, Sid grew up wondering the cobbled streets of New York City looking after himself and fellow newspaper boys. Through the poorness, hunger and simplistic life, nothing excited him. Until, a war broke out across the nation. In a heartbeat, Sid went from the ranks of conning teenagers to controlling officers and into the pounding war. Will he regret his choice or love every dangerous moment?

In a Futurist-Victorian London, Ex-Carnie Victor Hart makes his living as a dinner party entertainer and mountebank, using the skills taught to him by his Romani mother – the Patterns. When tragedy strikes a wealthy friend, Victor Hart puts his skills to use in an alternative manner. This Steampunk London has its fair share of psychos, sickos, and sadists, and it takes a special kind of mind to hunt them. Victor sees human behaviour in a way few others can understand but only as an outsider; certain parts of his humanity are missing and that disturbs him. As he solves each seemingly unrelated case, a dark pattern slowly begins to reveal itself threatening the heart of the British Empire and even what we feel makes us human. A Steampunk-detective-noir, darker than most, the first volume features four thrilling cases; the first novel in a Duology.