The Carpetbagger: a Victorian memoir
London, 1882 - A wet, drizzle-bedevilled summer. The sort of weather that turned beer flat, made bread go mouldy and flooded pavements with puddles...
But not everything is as it seems - The Carpetbagger is not the book you think it is...
On the surface it is a gripping crime thriller but lurking below there is so much more; it is about survival, moral ambiguity; radical politics, changing society and gender fluidity.
The story weaves through the grimy backstreets of London's East End before reaching its conclusion in the bohemian world of Montmartre, Paris.
Told in the first person by an unnamed narrator, the story follows their descent from a life of domestic servitude in the north east of England to the criminal underbelly of London.
As a petty thief, the narrator prowls a city rife with corruption and discontent, preying on the wealthy who visit the East End to indulge in an exploitative entertainment known as slumming.
This is a world of opportunistic crime; bribing crooked constables; dropping in on illegal fistfights; encountering army imposters and just scraping by.
Meanwhile, radical socialist ideas, fuelled by displaced Germans and growing unrest, seep into London's streets threatening the rigid hierarchies of Victorian society.
But survival takes a darker turn when the narrator becomes ensnared in a deadly conspiracy. A fervent Afrikaner, intent on securing an independent Boer homeland, has devised a shocking assassination plot...
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