The year is 1872. The place is Wigan, England, a coal town where rich mine owners live lavishly alongside miners no better than slaves. Into this dark, complicated world comes Jonathan Blair, who has accepted a commission to find a missing man.

When he begins his search every road leads back to one woman, a haughty, vixenish pit girl named Rose. With her fiery hair and skirts pinned up over trousers, she cares nothing for a society that calls her unnatural, scandalous, erotic.

As Rose and Blair circle one another, first warily, then with the heat of mutual desire, Blair loses his balance. And the lull induced by Rose's sensual touch leaves him unprepared for the bizarre, soul-scorching truth. . . .

Martin Cruz Smith lives with his wife in northern California; they have three children. For Rose he won the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers. He is also the author of Nightwing, Stallion Gate, and the bestselling Arkady Renko thrillers, Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square, and Havana Bay, his latest book.