by J C Briggs
Scrap, shop assistant, messenger boy, and amateur detective
Constables Stemp and Feak of Bow Street
Fikey Chubb, known fence and criminal
IN THIS NOVEL:
In Venice
Francisco, the gondolier
Aurelio Paladino, a man fallen on hard times
In London
John Forster, Dickens’s close friend and first biographer to whom he writes the letters from Italy
Jane Carlyle, wife of Thomas Carlyle, the historian and philosopher, close friends of Dickens
Nero, her dog
Fanny, her servant
Anne Brown, personal maid to Dickens’s wife, Catherine
Magpie, an actor and acrobat
Jianna Rizzo, his mistress
The Household of Sir Neptune Fane, M.P. at Wisteria Lodge
Sir Neptune
Lady Mary, his wife,
Mariana, his elder daughter
Alexander, his son
Mary, his younger daughter
Violet Pout, the governess (also, Amelia Pout, Violet Pout’s mother; Herbert Pout, Violet’s father, deceased; James Pout, Violet’s brother; Caroline Pout, his wife)
Miss Bedwin, the nursemaid
Rolando Sabatini, the music teacher
Pryor, the footman
Mrs Pick, the housekeeper
Jemima Curd, maid to Mariana Fane (also, George Curd, Jemima Curd’s father, in the workhouse; Mrs Curd, Jemima’s mother, missing; Sarah and Daniel, Jemima’s siblings, in the workhouse; Nolly Turner, a cousin in the coffin-making business)
Jessie Sharp, a housemaid
Mrs Dolly Marchant, a close friend of the Fane family
Jack Marchant, her estranged son
Madam Emerald, a clairvoyant at an evening party
The Artists
St. George Pierce at Osnaburgh Terrace
Lily, his daughter
Clarkson Stanfield, marine painter*
George, his son, also an artist*
Cipriani Lloyd, a sculptor
Anthony, his friend, an artist
The Doctors
Dr Symonds of King’s College Hospital who examines the bodies
Dr Bennett of the Middlesex House of Correction who examines a body in the St. John’s reservoir
Dr Adam, whose patient was Flora Lambert
Dr Lucas of a sanatorium in Malvern who writes a letter to Superintendent Jones
Dr Forbes Benignus Winslow of Sussex House, a private asylum in Hammersmith, who gives evidence
Dr Jessop, his assistant, who conducts Charles Dickens round the asylum
Dr Mellor of the Bethlehem Hospital who gives evidence
Dr Elliotson, Dickens’s close friend, who takes him to the asylum*
Sir William Gresty, doctor to Lady Fane
The Lawyers
Mr Box, coroner at the magistrates’ court
Judge Rightman at the Central Criminal Court
Mr Conelius Craft, counsel for the defence
Mr Edmund Needle, counsel for the prosecution
The Police
Inspector Shackell of Clerkenwell
Inspector Maxwell of S Division
Inspector Day of D Division
Constables Pickering and Weeks of D Division
The Clergymen
The Reverend Mr Anguish, too ill to appear in person
Miss Anguish, his sister
Flora Lambert, a distant relative, deceased, former companion to a Mrs Wyatt, also deceased, of South Crescent
The Reverend Mr Harvest, a grieving father at Willesden
Susan Harvest, his deceased daughter, former companion to a Mrs Danby, also deceased
Anna Harvest, his living daughter
Octavius Nash, friend of Reverend Harvest, who investigates the death of Susan
At Drury Lane Theatre
James Anderson, actor-manager
Mr Cuthbert, chief scene painter
Mr Perkins, chief property maker
Frederick Clarke, acrobat and globe-spinner
Miss Mantalini, a mantua maker
Maisie Bolton, a seamstress
The Witnesses
Mrs Gambol, a laundress at Hemlock Court
Martha, her daughter
Mrs Link, a landlady
Peely Peel and James Hand, labourers at the house in South Crescent where a skeleton is found
Micky Peel, Peely’s son
Mr Faithfull, auctioneer and valuer
Josiah Rarx, a pawnbroker
Mrs Rarx, his mother
Miss Temperance Peach and Mrs Patience Peach at Little College Street, former servants to Mrs Wyatt, deceased employer of Flora Lambert
Mrs Fudge, former laundress to Mrs Wyatt
Ned Orrey who finds a body
Toby Jeddler (Jug) who finds a body
Walter Child (Watcher) who finds a body
Mr Gilpin, a coalman in Clerkenwell
Polly, his horse
Mrs Godolphin, formerly Miss Masters, a friend of Susan Harvest
Clara, her daughter
Cassie Hanlon, customer at The Forlorn Hope Tavern
Isabella, a woman in black
Mrs Slack, housekeeper to the woman in black
Lilian Judd, a servant, who writes a letter
Hob, a cabman
Bob, his horse
Job Grime, a waterman at the cabstand
Luigi Mariotti known as Antonio Gallenga, Dickens’s former Italian teacher*
Obaysch, the hippopotamus at Regent’s Park Zoo
Published by Sapere Books.
11 Bank Chambers, Hornsey, London, N8 7NN,
United Kingdom
saperebooks.com
Copyright © J C Briggs, 2019
J C Briggs has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 9781913028800