British writer Myerson (Sleepwalking; Me and the Fat Man) continues to produce unsettling novels that introduce eccentric characters, provocative themes and shocking situations. Set in Victorian London, this remorseless tale about a headstrong, eccentric murderess is a great, grisly pleasure. The eponymous heroine was raised in an upper-middle-class family, but when her father died, leaving large business debts, she was sent to the poorhouse; later, worse luck finds her living in the streets. At 38, Laura's life changes when she is struck down by a cab and hospitalized. She is saved by Ewan, a socially awkward surgeon (he lives with his belittling, critical mother) who amputates Laura's crushed leg, but she finds little reward in her new, stifling role as Ewan's wife. She has an affair with 23-year-old Billy, a married sewer laborer with four young children, and quickly this love turns to obsession. Laura decides to take matters into her own hands, so she tells Ewan she's leaving him, then brutally smashes his head in, watching his "slosh of blood" turn to "jam and cream." When she triumphantly announces her deed to Billy, he is, of course, horrified and baffled. "Women are supposed to be the gentle sex," Laura muses, "but that's a joke. Boys are the burned sugared applesÄbrittle on the outside and mushy within. Girls are spun candyÄa cloud of pink fluff, with a hard stick rammed down the middle." Laura's haunting story veers lucidly and frighteningly from disaster to disaster, but Laura's grim life never feels piteous. Rather, amoral Laura is an exciting, ribald figure who, with wild hair, missing teeth, itchy stump, unapologetic carnality and decidedly unromantic outlook, is a refreshing break from typical down-on-their-luck historic heroines. Myerson is crafty and unsparing with her words; the pages jump with a lively expressiveness that delivers a tremendous kick. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Myerson's novels (e.g., Me and the Fat Man) tend to focus on alienated characters and perverse relationships, but her latest work is decidedly dark and gruesome. Set in mid-19th-century London, it opens as Laura bludgeons to death her physician husband. Through skillfully woven flashbacks told as Laura and her young lover work to dispose of the body, Myerson masterfully tells the tale of a woman with a preternatural cruel streak. Raised by her father in relative comfort, Laura is orphaned at 14 and raped in a carriage on her way to her dying aunt's. The aunt leaves her money to charity, and Laura finds herself penniless and pregnant. She gives up her son to a foundling hospital and is nearly crazed by loss. After spending years in prison and living homeless on the streets, she is run down by a carriage. The surgeon who amputates her injured leg is strangely attracted to her. They marry, but Laura is so hardened by her life that she can't return to respectability. Her obsessive love affair with the young man, who supports a wife and children by digging what will become London's sewers, moves from illicit to bizarre. The novel contains starkly realistic portrayals of London's seamy underworld and grisly descriptions of amputation and dismemberment. A well-crafted story, but not for everyone's taste. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/00.]ÄReba Leiding, James Madison Univ. Lib., Harrisonburg, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.