DAUGHTERS OF NIGHT – LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON

The best historical crime novel I will read this year – The Times From The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Square of Sevens, Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Daughters of Night follows Caroline Corsham as she seeks justice for a murdered woman whom Georgian London society would rather forget . . . London, 1782. Desperate for her politician husband to return home from France, Caroline ‘Caro’ Corsham is already in a state of anxiety when she finds a well-dressed woman mortally wounded in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the dead woman was a highly paid prostitute. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done. Enlisting the help of thief-taker Peregrine Child, Caro sets out to solve the crime herself. Their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice and deception. But with many gentlemen refusing to speak about their dealings with the dead woman, and Caro’s own reputation under threat, finding the killer will be more treacherous than she can know . . . Spectacularly brilliant . . . One of the most enjoyable and enduring stories I have ever read – James O Brien, journalist and author of How They Broke Britain Praise for Laura Shepherd-Robinson: This rich, complex and haunting Dickensian epic is a triumph of the Gothic genre – Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal, on The Square of Sevens ‘A page-turner of a crime thriller . . . This is a world conveyed with convincing, terrible clarity’ – C. J. Sansom, bestselling author of Tombland, on Blood Sugar