A literary murder mystery and a tale of modern love from an Orange-longlisted author
When Kit goes to a dance class she is hoping simply to take her mind off her studies. Soon it looks like Joe, a stranger she meets there, might do more than that. But when Kit uncovers a mystery involving the young Charles Dickens and the slaughter of a prostitute known as The Countess, she is sucked back in to the world of books, and discovers how Dickens became tangled up with this horrendous crime.
"A genuinely puzzling historical murder mystery linking Dickens to the gruesome murder of a prostitute . . . Fresh and clever and very funny." - * Guardian *
"Gowers's writing is absolutely beautiful." - * The Times *
"
Really a contemporary love story, and a very good one too . . . This is fine writing . . . sharp, acute, comic and true to life.
" - * Scotsman *
"Singularly convincing an genuinely moving . . . Twenty-first-century love is laid tenderly but unflinchingly bare in this ultimately strange and lingering novel." - * Independent on Sunday *
"A dark delight of a novel." - * Metro *
