Book description
In his sixth adventure, Sergeant Verity returns to London's 1860s
underworld of alleys and brothels, peopled with sneak thieves, dancing
girls, thugs, murderers and pimps.
From Newgate Gaol come sinister rumours of a man to be hanged for a
murder he did not commit. 'Handsome' Jack Rann, safebreaker
extraordinary, has been snared by the rival Swell Mob, and a corrupt
policeman, 'Flash' Charley Fowler. To reach America and be lost for
ever, Jack must escape the death-cell and pull off the robbery planned
by his dead accomplice, Pandy Quinn.
From Newgate prison to the stage of the Penny Gaff, from bank vaults
under Cornhill to rotting sewers below Wapping and Shadwell, Rann flees
- while Sergeant Verity closes on the forces of evil with awesome
tenacity. Francis Selwyn (a pen name of Donald Thomas) was born in
Somerset and educated at Queen's College, Taunton, and Balliol College,
Oxford. He holds a personal chair in the University of Wales, Cardiff,
now Cardiff University. His numerous crime novels include two
collections of Sherlock Holmes stories and a hugely successful
historical detective series written under the pen name Francis Selwyn
and featuring Sergeant Verity of Scotland Yard, as well as gritty police
procedurals written under the name of Richard Dacre. He is also the
author of seven biographies and a number of other non-fiction works, and
won the Gregory Prize for his poems, Points of Contact
. He lives in Bath with his wife.
