Short-listed for the Crimefest/Specsavers Debut Crime Fiction Award 2020
Longlisted for the Historical Writers Association (HWA) Debut Crown award 2019

To believe in her future, she must uncover her past...

Birmingham, 1885. Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her.

Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood. Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora...?

With the power and intrigue of Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions and Sarah Schmidt's See What I Have Done, Carolyn Kirby's stunning debut takes the reader on a heart-breaking journey through Victorian Birmingham and questions where we first learn violence: from our scars or from our hearts.