The Shadow Series

She’s small, filthy, and mean enough to make grown men reconsider their life choices. London calls her vermin. She calls herself Ratcatcher.

After flinging two live rats into a baker’s shop, Ratcatcher convinces him he has a vermin problem—and that she’s the solution. Her wages: a heel of bread a day, with drippings on both sides, and a dry place behind the shop. It isn’t much. But she earned it, which makes it hers.

Then Moss, another street child, disappears into the blue mist with a strange woman offering the impossible: stew, blankets, warmth, safety.

Ratcatcher knows better than to trust anything given away for free.

And she has troubles enough without gutter angels. Parish men are sniffing around. Sleeping places are being boarded shut. Even a drink of clean water belongs to someone. In Ratcatcher’s London, every scrap of safety comes with an owner—and every owner eventually wants something in return.

So she does what she has always done. She bargains. She cheats. She bites.

And above all, she survives.