'A tension-filled crime novel, a thrilling historical exploration, and a wonderfully surreal vision. The reader is compelled to turn each page, to find out what happens next, to taste, to feel, to hear and - especially - to smell New York 150 years ago.'

New York, 1868: Beatrice, a young Irishwoman, is a 'hot-corn girl', selling corn-on-the-cob to passers-by, and picking their pockets into the bargain. 'Georg', a German immigrant arriving in Manhattan on the run from a scandal - or perhaps a crime - back in his native Hamburg, becomes astableboy, tending circus-owner Barnum's menagerie, until he is framed for an arson attack and finds himself once again on the run.

He falls into the hands of the Whyos, Beatrice's gang, with whom he is reborn as an Irish labourer before being led to take a job as a sewerman, unaware of the part in crime the gang have in mind for him. As he beginsto fall in love with Beatrice, whom the Whyos have selected to teach him topass as an Irishman, all seems well, until the gang's leader chooses Beatrice as his First Girl and their criminal plans begin to become clear...

PRELUDE 1

AT  LARGE  IN  THE  CITY

1. INFERNO

2. THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

3. WILL

4. TO SQUAT SAVES THE BACK

5. LA VITA NUOVA

6. THE UNDERTOE

7. EXTRA! EXTRA!

8. MORGUE

9. PROTEUS

UNDERWORLD

1O. THE WHYOS

11. ABOUT FACE

I2. SAND, GRAVEL, TAR

13. DOWN THE MANHOLE

14. RECONNAISSANCE

15. MOTHER DOLAN AND THE GRAND PLAN

I6. THE GROTTO

I7. RED COW

I8. DIPTYCH

19. BODY IN THE BROOM CLOSET

20. THE TAMMANY JOB

21. NEW MOON, OLD MOON

22. FIRST GIRL

THE  LOVE  OF  HEIGHTS

23. ON THE ICE

24. BROOKLYN

25. THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

26. DREAMS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

27. THE WESTFIELD

28. SANCTUARY

29. THE LIONESS

30. SOMETHING LONG AND THIN

31. THE MONKEY-HEADED CANES

32. BEZOAR

NEW  WORLD

33. THE FALL OF MAN

34. A NEW ERA

35. UNDERTOE SINGS

36. RATTUS RATTUS

37. PROFIT SHARING

38. EXTREME UNCTION

39. WORLD WITHOUT END

AUTHOR'S NOTE