Sarah Waters, Fingersmith. London, Virago, 2002. First edition, first printing. Demi 8 3/4 x 5 1/2. 548 pp. SIGNED by Waters. Wrap-around band present.

Waters is a proven writer of historical novels, both critically acclaimed and popular; shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the MAN Booker Prize for this book and for The Night Watch. She is noted in both 500 Essential Cult Books. and The Little Black Book of Books. This is her third novel, beloved by crime fiction fans for its storytelling is reminiscent of the sensation style novels Dickens and Collins. Televised by the BBC.

Plot summary: For an orphan girl growing up amid the poverty and criminality of Victorian London Susan Trinder has led a remarkably sheltered life, kept safe and protected by her adopted step mother Mrs Sucksby. But when Richard Rivers, or Gentlemen as he is known to them, arrives with a scheme to defraud an heiress of her inheritance, Susan heads out into the world, ready to make her fortune at the expense of the innocent Maud Lilly.

All the troupes of the sensation novel are present (lunatic asylums, pickpockets and schemers) yet Walters uses them to tease the reader, using the unexpected twist and making it impossible to put the book down. As a storyteller, there can be few better than Sarah Waters. In the pacing and control of information, she is virtually flawless. Fingersmith manages to be a solid work of literature, both a page turning romp and a clever crime story. One definitely for the literary and crime collector’s shelf.

Condition: Very fine in same dust jacket.