No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own In the immediate aftermath of The War of the Worlds, Britain, having defeated the invading Martians, is a weakened shell of its former self. As it begins the process of rebuilding, a new, more Earthly, foe seizes its opportunity. Scarlet Traces continues in this fourth volume of Ian Edginton and D'Israeli's critically acclaimed sequel to H.G. Wells' iconic novel The War of the Worlds.