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London’s poor, who live in crowded squalor with the ever present danger of illnesses such as typhoid, diphtheria, and consumption, not surprisingly resist the authority of the police and refuse to come forth as witnesses. Lizzie’s outspokenness and intelligence are not admired by her employer and her incredibly insensitive and boorish friends.

Deep class and gender expectations rigidly dictate one’s life. On the streets, sellers of every item imaginable mingle with equally plentiful petty thieves. The city’s public places are noisy, dirty, and smoggy. Granger writes of a London in the process of being transformed above ground and below - via new under groundsewers and railways. The book’s historical information is stronger than the plot, which needs a number of coincidences to reach a conclusion. Part of the story is told from Ben’s point of view.

After finding disturbing facts in her new home, Lizzie becomes a secret source of information for Inspector Benjamin Ross, an intriguing man from her Derbyshire coalfields childhood. While others accuse the woman of bringing her fate upon herself, Lizzie is soon persuaded that there’s a deeper mystery. Pancreas railway terminus, is that of her predecessor. Almost immediately, she discovers that the murdered body she saw being carried from the site of the construction of the new St. Lizzie Martin has just just arrived in London from Derbyshire to take up a new position as lady’s companion.