Kidnapped and taken to China, teenage Sherlock finds himself plunged into the heart of a deadly mystery. How can three men be bitten by the same poisonous snake in different parts of Shanghai? Who wants them dead, and why? The answers seem to lie in a message hidden in a diagram that looks like a spider's web. But, solving one puzzle only leads to an even more urgent question: What has all this got to do with a plot to blow up an American warship? To unravel the strands that entangle him, Sherlock must brave terrors greater than any he has faced before.
