The Pure Finder of Bermondsey
A Novel of the Victorian Leather Trade

About this book:

The fog that clings to Bermondsey doesn't drift from the Thames—it rises from the tannery vats, thick with the reek of lime, dung, and salted hide. Nineteen-year-old Jem scrapes a living as a pure finder, harvesting dog manure from gutters and kennels to sell for eightpence a bucket: the essential ingredient that turns raw skin into the leather that boots an empire. He knows every cobbled alley, every territorial boundary, every whisper in the yard. But when his paddle strikes something hard buried in a heap of pure—a metal clink where only grit should be—Jem pulls a secret from the sludge that the master tanners would kill to keep buried.

From the steaming lime pits to the vaults beneath Neckinger, a conspiracy is festering in the heart of the Great Leather Engine. Ledgers written in ash, a guild of silence, a missing lime pit, and blood on the hides all point to a truth that reaches far beyond the dung heaps. As fire spreads through Bermondsey Street and the Thames runs thick with runoff, Jem must navigate a hierarchy built on rot and decide what price he'll pay for silence—and what he'll risk to bring the darkness into the light.

Atmospheric, visceral, and steeped in the grime and grandeur of Victorian industry, *The Pure Finder of Bermondsey* immerses you in a world where fortune is forged from filth, and the lowest scavenger holds the key to the highest crime.