Book description
To 'walk in Pimlico' is, according to the Penguin Dictionary of
Historical Slang, the colloquial expression 'to be handsomely dressed'.
Comedian, clog dancer, comic vocalist, actor and all-round funny fellow
Corney Sage is treading the boards at the Constellation in Whitechapel
when he stumbles across the body of an actress outside the theatre and
catches sight of the killer as he escapes. Corney was not the only
witness. Fellow actress Lucy Strong also saw what happened and when the
murderer returns to the scene of the crime that same night, both fear
for their lives. Corney and Lucy flee London separately, keeping in
touch with each other through a series of advertisements in the trade
paper, the Era. Certain they have escaped the same fate as Bessie, they
settle into their new lives away from London. But the murderer - a
master of disguise - is slowly closing in on them and it is only a
matter of time before he pounces . . . From the drawing rooms of polite
society to the back rooms of brothels, through music halls, circus rings
and freak shows, Ann Featherstone brilliantly reconstructs 19th century
England in this gripping psychological thriller.
