From the "delightfully smart" bestselling author, childhood friends find different fates in nineteenth-century London-one a life on the stage, the other poverty and danger (The Sunday Times).
What Dot Allbones lacks in beauty, she makes up for with the riches of her large Midland family and her comedic talent. The queen of London's music hall stage, Dot's life is filled with friendship, pleasurable male company, and enough money to maintain her independence.
Dot's childhood friend, Kate Eddowes, did not fare as well. Orphaned and beautiful, Kate gambled on a better future by taking a well-heeled husband, only to find herself alone and impoverished in London. A chance meeting with her friend Dot will change things for her-or at least she hopes it will. Only Kate is a little too drawn to the drink, a dangerous habit on the streets of Whitechapel in 1888, where a mysterious killer called Jack the Ripper is destroying the most downtrodden of women, one brutalized body at a time.
With her inimitable sharpness and wry wit, Laurie Graham brings to life the bustling pleasures and not-so-hidden dangers of urban life in a city where the extremes of poverty and wealth can truly determine a woman's fortune.
Praise for Laurie Graham
"Laurie Graham has a wonderfully light, deft touch." -Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls
"Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people's shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!" -Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Again, Rachel and Grown Ups
