'In this engaging first volume of a new historical series...Burman
reveals her knowledge of Victorian England.' Library Journal
'As far as escapism goes, this is as good as it gets: at times I felt as
if I was actually in the book.' Vulpes Libris
'Burman's extraordinary feeling for history and eccentric wit make for a
most unusual kind of crime caper.' Independent on Sunday
'A mystery packed with Victorian flavour.' Kirkus Reviews
I have seen a good many cities. Berlin is a charming conglomeration of
small villages, while Paris is truly urbane. But London surpasses them
both. One can never quite make out London and the Londoners. Everything
is here.
This is a historical detective novel that will appeal to fans of Sarah
Waters, author of Fingersmith.
The setting is London in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition.
Together with a Welsh police inspector, the successful Swedish authoress
Euthanasia Bondeson goes in search of her beautiful companion, who has
disappeared in the narrow streets and alleyways of London.
She meets beggars and whores, artists and society beauties, all actors
on the modern city's stage in a drama of dark shadows and ever-changing
desires. In this world where gender boundaries are constantly shifting,
can we even tell who is a man and who is a woman? With skirts flapping,
Euthanasia forges her way through this romp of a crime novel, surveying
the streets that Sherlock Holmes himself would not tread until a whole
generation later.
Carina Burman, PhD, a well-known novelist and assistant professor at
Uppsala University, has written extensively on eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century literature. She's made a name for herself as a
skillful writer of pastiche, reflecting the language and atmosphere of
days gone by. In 2001, she published a biography of Fredrika Bremer.
Streets of Babylon is her fifth novel.
