Camden, 1867. Death is Nathaniel Trent's livelihood.
In the cold morning light of a north-facing studio, he takes the final likenesses of London's lost. Heiresses and chimney sweeps, the loved and the unwanted, all posed for one last picture before the grave. The boy who carries his camera is, in truth, his daughter Charlotte, slipped into a flat cap and corduroys at twelve and called "Charlie" ever since.
When the Trents are summoned to Belgravia to photograph an heiress dead at eighteen, Charlie sees what the doctor would not. A thumb-print on the neck of the dead.
The plate is exposed. Three nights later, the studio is ransacked. Her father is left for dead. The negative is gone.
But there is a duplicate behind a loose tile in the darkroom floor.
And the man who certified the lie does not yet know that the slight boy at the photographer's elbow walks Belgravia on Sundays in skirts.
He is coming back for the rest of his evidence.
He will come in the dark.
Charlie Trent will be waiting in the morning light.
Genre: Sagas
In the cold morning light of a north-facing studio, he takes the final likenesses of London's lost. Heiresses and chimney sweeps, the loved and the unwanted, all posed for one last picture before the grave. The boy who carries his camera is, in truth, his daughter Charlotte, slipped into a flat cap and corduroys at twelve and called "Charlie" ever since.
When the Trents are summoned to Belgravia to photograph an heiress dead at eighteen, Charlie sees what the doctor would not. A thumb-print on the neck of the dead.
The plate is exposed. Three nights later, the studio is ransacked. Her father is left for dead. The negative is gone.
But there is a duplicate behind a loose tile in the darkroom floor.
And the man who certified the lie does not yet know that the slight boy at the photographer's elbow walks Belgravia on Sundays in skirts.
He is coming back for the rest of his evidence.
He will come in the dark.
Charlie Trent will be waiting in the morning light.
Genre: Sagas