A seductive, clever tale of crime, punishment and love among thieves set in 1720s London - Jake Arnott does for the 18th century what he did for the 1960s in his cult hit The Long Firm.
Newgate Gaol, 1726. An anonymous writer sets down the words of Edgworth Bess as she confides the adventures and misfortunes that led her all too soon to the judgement of London:
Cruelly deceived, Bess is cast out onto the streets of the wicked city - and by nightfall her ruin is already certain. What matters now is her survival of it.
In that dangerous underworld known in thieves' cant as Romeville, she will learn new tricks and trades. And all begins with her fateful meeting, that very first night, with the corrupt thief-taker general Jonathan Wild.
But it is the infamous gaol-breaker, Jack Sheppard, who will lay Romeville at her feet . . .
Drawing on the true story that mesmerised eighteenth-century society, the acclaimed author of The Long Firm delivers a tour de force: a riveting, artful tale of crime and rough justice, love and betrayal. Rich in the street slang of the era, it vividly conjures up a murky world of illicit dens and molly-houses; a world where life was lived on the edge, in the shadow of that fatal tree - the gallows.
Includes a glossary.
About the Author
Jake Arnott was born in 1961, and lives in London. He is the author of The Long Firm, published by Sceptre in 1999 and subsequently made into an acclaimed BBC TV series. His second novel, He Kills Coppers, was also made into a series by Channel 4. He has since published the novels True Crime, Johnny Come Home, the Devil's Paintbrush and The House of Rumour.
Industry Reviews
Jake Arnott, who is probably best known for excellent novels such as The Long Firm about London gangsters in the 1960s, has done much more than update the work of his 18th-century predecessors. Unlike them, he shows the citizens of Romeville as people, not as folk heroes or bogeymen . . . Arnott explores what poor Bess calls 'the felony of love', a crime that is not on the statute book. The result is powerful, poignant and readable.
