Description

Weaving anonymously through the crowds, Hannah smiled as she felt the weight of her pad in her pocket, a pad that by rights should contain a shopping list of kidneys and turbot and ribbons, but instead held the gruesome details of a first-hand account of a murder . . .

Mrs Pearcey tells the story of Hannah, a young woman engaged to be married, who becomes obsessed with her near-neighbour Mrs Pearcey, accused of a scandalous murder.

Unbeknown to her journalist fiancé, Hannah begins to investigate in secret, discovering details that the investigators have failed to spot, and realising that the woman bound for the gallows may not be as guilty as the press have branded her . . .

Sharp, immersive and utterly transporting, Mrs Pearcey tells the story of a heroine you're rooting for at every turn, who comes to question whether the predetermined path of marriage and motherhood is really the one for her. It's also a brilliant portrait of tabloid journalism in Victorian London, exploring how the Victorian appetite for true crime was just as insatiable as our own today.