Sarah Waters’s brilliant evocation of the Victorian world is full of mirrors and tricks, featuring two female leads whose lives are linked inextricably in ways which they could never imagine. Susan has grown up in a den of thieves, the ‘fingersmiths’ of the title, raised by fearsome Mrs Sucksy. She’s drawn into a plot to marry the mysterious Gentleman to a wealthy heiress, Maud, by posing as her maid. But she soon realises her feelings for Maud are not what they should be – and that she is just as much a pawn as the other girl.
You should read it: to see how to blend erotica with crime fiction; for the dazzling double-crosses; to see how to use voice and unreliable narration to build breathtaking suspense.
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