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Fingersmith
Sarah Waters. Riverhead Books: 2003 (paperback). ISBN: 1573229725. 592 pages.
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This is the novel that any Victorian Gothic novelist would have sold his last pair of knickers to write. Sarah Waters' delightfully twisted tale of two mysterious young ladies--one a schemer on the make, the other a lady, the niece of a wealthy gentleman with a nasty hobby--is by far the most wickedly absorbing thriller you're going to abandon your family for this year.
Orphan Sue Trinder, daughter of a murderess hanged for her crimes, makes a bargain with a man she knows only as Gentleman to help him seduce a sweet little country heiress, thereby making all their fortunes. As Sue befriends Maud Lilly, her tender new mistress, she grows increasingly uneasy in her presence, on a number of levels. Just when you're wondering how it can possibly be that this story seems to be at the end--and why there's still four hundred pages yet to go--Wham! Waters smacks you upside the head with a wickedly confounding plot test--then another, then another, then another. Before it's all over, both girls are captive: one in an insane asylum, the other in an unwanted relative's arms. Great, juicy stuff--this is the gold standard by which to measure all other historical novels.
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