An orphaned girl stars in the latest Gothic mystery by an award-winning author. When eleven-year-old Amelia Fairchild sets sail to New York from her home in Victorian London, she is alone except for her forbidding cousin Charlotte. Fortunately, on board she meets the singer Primrose, also an orphan, who brightens the journey. But worse news awaits in New York, as Amelia is abandoned even by Charlotte and finds herself a prisoner. This well-reviewed Dickensian page-turner features unexpected plot turns and the grotesque but endearingly silly characters that Wallace's fans have come to expect.

 

This book was recognised by the Edgar Allen Poe Award. The Edgars are presented annually by the members of the Mystery Writers of America to distinguished fiction and non-fiction works about crime, mystery and detection primarily by American authors.

There are 152 pages in this book. This book was published 1997 by Simon & Schuster .

Barbara Brooks Wallace has written Victorian mysteries that include a parlor, a tavern, a castle, a scullery, and a gallery. But she claims never to have lived in a tavern or a castle, or owned a house with a parlor, a scullery, or a gallery. So far she has not lived in a tenement, either. She simply dwells in a nice little house in Alexandria, Virginia, with her very nice husband; affectionate Burmese cat, Cleo; and turtle, Peter. Her son, Jimmy, daughter-in-law, Christina, and Victoria and Elizabeth, their two daughters, live nearby.