There, in the darkness of the stinking tunnels beneath the rising towers of Victorian London, May discovers another side of the city and remembers a disturbing, violent past. The corruption of the growing city soon begins to overwhelm him and a violent murder is committed.
Will the sewers reveal all and show that the world above ground is even darker and more threatening than the tunnels beneath?
Beautifully written, evocative and compelling, with a fantastically vivid cast of characters, Clare Clarke's first book is a rich novel, full of suspense, that draws the reader right into Victorian London and into the worlds of its characters who are desperately attempting to swim the tides of change.
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Clare Clark clearly knows her stuff. She takes us into the rancid underground world of London in the 1850s at a time when the transformation of London's sewer system is underway. A murder takes place but this is almost incidental to the lives of William May, a Crimean soldier heavily scarred by the war he's left behind and Long Arm Tom, heavily scarred by the toils of a long hard life and is currently employed (successfully) as a Tosher - a sewer scavenger and supplier of rats for illegal gambling.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably not for the faint hearted with Clark's descriptions of the stench and poverty endured by many, but perservere. It confirms that war is hard and gruelling and downright harsh and that mental illness is bleak and lonely. Yet it captivated me.
I look forward to reading more by Clare Clark.
www.thegreatstink.com/