A first novel, and the title puts you off. Of the six of us at the meeting, only 3 had read it, and one had tried. One found the thought of William cutting himself very gruesome, and didn't think he would have come home from the Crimea with the wound that he had. Self-mutilation in the sewers would surely have infected and killed him back in London. We read for pleasure, not to be dragged through London's sewers, but the actual story was quite good.
There are two stories here, one about William May the engineer on the London Sewer project, and the other about the poor man Long Arm Tom and his dog, who roams the sewers collecting rats for the rat fights. William specifies the bricks for the new tunnels against the desires of his boss Hawkes who has the builder English bribing him for the contract. When William insists that the contract goes elsewhere, English is found dead and William fitted up for it. William has periods of madness and is sent by his employers to an Asylum, but then taken to the hulks to await trial. His wife cannot take the madness and is trying to forget him, despite the reduction in her circumstances.
Tom meanwhile sells his dog to the 'Captain' who gives him a written contract to supply the rest of the money in two more instalments, but then defaults. He is bitter about this, as he and the dog had a very close relationship, probably the only one of his life. Tom cannot read, so doesn't know what this contract actually says.
Both William and Tom have hidden stuff in the brickwork of the sewers.
In trying to prove William's innocence, his lawyer is in the sewers when Tom comes down with the Captain to recover the bill of sale, which is actually a bill of sale for some straw that will prove Williams innocent and convict Hawkes. This is where the two stories come together as the Captain and Hawkes are actually the same man. William is freed while Hawkes goes to the gallows.
William is reunited with his wife, and moves to the county to become a gardener. And Tom has his dog.
A mystery right through until the only good news at the end.
It is not Dickens- there is too much descriptive information about the sewers that is continually repeated. Here is the pumping station that William was working on before he went to the asylum: http://www.crossness.org.uk/index.html.
As the author was an academic, and it was remarked that she had done a lot of research and couldn't bear not to use it.
Marks were 1,6,5,6 giving 4.5 as an average.
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