Daughters of Night

Book excerpt: 'The best historical crime novel I will read this year' – The Times From the pleasure palaces and gin-shops of Covent Garden to the elegant townhouses of Mayfair, Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Daughters of Night follows Caroline Corsham as she seeks justice for a murdered woman whom 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 the bowers of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the deceased woman was a highly paid prostitute, at which point they cease to care entirely. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done. Enlisting the help of thieftaker Peregrine Child, Caro sets out to solve the crime herself. Their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice, deception and secret lives. 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 harder, and more treacherous, than she can know . . . 'Spectacularly brilliant . . . One of the most enjoyable and enduring stories I have ever read' – James O'Brien, journalist, author and LBC Presenter 'This is right up there with the best of C. J. Sansom and Andrew Taylor' – Amanda Craig, author of The Golden Rule