Sarah Waters

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby's household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves-fingersmiths-for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives-Gentleman, a somewhat elegant con man, who carries with...

The story of a "girl-in-trousers" in 1890s England. She is a lesbian fishmonger who gains entry into the libertine world of music halls by an affair with a singer, becoming her partner in a cross-dressing show. But drama follows when the other goes straight.

Named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards, Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet (H1470), a New York Times Notable Book. Once inside the concrete walls of Millbank Prison, Margaret Prior, hired to speak with the female inmates, becomes all too aware that what she perceives to be reality may not be so. Bringing new ideas to her mind is the beautiful, but dangerous criminal Selina Dawes.

"The lives of two young women collide in [a] ... thriller that alternates between the twisting back alleyways of Dickensian London and the cloistered gloom of a Gothic mansion. Raised in a den of petty thieves, or 'fingersmiths, ' plucky orphan Sue Trinder agrees to help a con man known as Gentleman defraud and betray wealthy heiress Maud Lilly. But Sue's plans are turned upside down when she falls in love with Maud. Then the women are separated --...