Jack Maggs

The Year is 1837 and a stranger is prowling London. He is Jack Maggs, a recent, illegal returnee from the desolate prison island of Australia. Raised a thief and hardened by the barbarities of deportation, he is risking Iris life seeking vengeance and reconciliation. Maggs wins a position as a footman in the household of the genteel grocer Percy Buckle. But this most unservile servant soon attracts the attention of a cross section of London society. The saucy Mercy Larkin wants him for a mate. The writer Tobias Oates waits to possess his soul through hypnosis. But Maggs is obsessed with a plan of his own. And as the various schemes converge, Maggs rises into the center, a dark, looming figure, at once frightening, mysterious, and utterly compelling.