In London, in 1909, the Fitzglens combine running London’s finest theatre with a very profitable side-line in stealing.
But while they might be thieves, they still have principles. They never pinch anything their victim couldn’t afford to lose.
When a stranger approaches Jack Fitzglen after a performance, claiming that a Fitzglen has committed a grave crime in his village in faraway Russia, Jack knows exactly who’s to blame: the unpleasant Saintly Simeon, who was chucked out of the family for breaking their code.
Simeon has stolen the three valuable, and oddly frightening, Stone Heads, the likenesses of children who vanished over a century ago.
The Heads were locked away from the world in a remote Russian monastery, though whether to protect the priceless sculptures, or to protect the villagers from the Heads themselves, no one can say.
Jack joins forces with fellow actor Viola Gilfillan to retrieve the stolen goods and put things right. But as they investigate, peeling the layers of history back to the treacherous court of Catherine the Great herself, the ominous power of the Stone Heads begins to draw them down into a darkness from which they may never be able to escape
The Face Stealer by Sarah Rayne is published in paperback on 26 February, 2026. It’s the third of her Theatre of Thieves mysteries.
For more new historical fiction, have a look at Historia’s list of books coming out in 2026 — over 120 of them.
