The Tumbling Girl

DEBUT Minnie Ward, a scriptwriter, is as worried about the serial Hairpin Killer as any other young woman who works at the Variety Palace Music Hall in 1876 London. She’s devastated when her best friend Rose disappears and is later found dead. However, Minnie doesn’t accept the police’s conclusion of suicide and turns to private investigator Albert Easterbrook, who left the police force two years earlier to open his own business. He agrees to take the case, but he and Minnie disagree as to the depth of her involvement, as she knows she can use her skills as a mimic and actress to talk with the working-class servants who might have known Rose. When other young women disappear, Albert wants Minnie to back off; he’s grown fond of her and doesn’t want to endanger her. But together Minnie and Albert infiltrate a powerful men’s club, only to learn they may have drawn the attention of a violent killer.