The Booker Prize-winning author of "Oscar and Lucinda" returns to the
19th century in an utterly captivating mystery. The year is 1837 and a
stranger is prowling London. He is Jack Maggs, an illegal returnee from
the prison island of Australia. He has the demeanor of a savage and the
skills of a hardened criminal, and he is risking his life on seeking
vengeance and reconciliation. Installing himself within the household of
the genteel grocer Percy Buckle, Maggs soon attracts the attention of a
cross section of London society. Saucy Mercy Larkin wants him for a
mate. The writer Tobias Oates wants to possess his soul through
hypnosis. But Maggs is obsessed with a plan of his own. And as all the
various schemes converge, Maggs rises into the center, a dark looming
figure, at once frightening, mysterious, and compelling. Not since Caleb
Carr's "The Alienist" have the shadowy city streets of the 19th century
lit up with such mystery and romance.