The Great Stink

Clare Clark’s critically acclaimed The Great Stink “reeks of talent” (The Washington Post Book World) as it vividly brings to life the dark and mysterious underworld of Victorian London. Set in 1855, it tells the story of William May, an engineer who has returned home to London from the horrors of the Crimean War. When he secures a job trans­forming the city’s sewer system, he believes that he will be able to find salvation in the subterranean world beneath the city. But the peace of the tunnels is shattered by a murder, and William is implicated as the killer. Could he truly have committed the crime? How will he bring the truth above-ground?
 
With richly atmospheric prose, The Great Stink combines fact and fiction to transport readers into London’s putrid past, and marks the debut of a remarkably talented writer in the tradition of the very best historical novelists.
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PRAISE FOR THE GREAT STINK

"Clare Clark writes with the eyes of a historian and the soul of a novelist. The Great Stink is a compelling journey through the dark and mysterious underworld of Victorian London."--Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

"Its world is so lovingly evoked and its plot so gripping that it can only have been born of a consuming passion. To read The Great Stink is to experience that most exquisite of bookish pleasures: total immersion."--Time Out London

"Clark transforms the network of underground tunnels, through which the capital disposed of its waste, into a phantasmagoric dreamscape . . . An impressive debut." - The Times Literary Supplement