Little Deaths describes the world of Simon Wise, a Jewish police inspector in 1875 Victorian London. With his bluff Scottish sergeant, Inspector Wise is pulled headlong into the mysterious murder of an aristocratic lady with an intriguing past. Along the way, he encounters deformed dead infants, secret lovers I the emerging pseudoscience of eugenics, ethnic prejudice, and women’s rights. As the Inspector delves more deeply into method and motive, he confronts representatives of the entire spectrum of English society from the powerful House of Rothschild to the denizens of the Lambeth slums. In and around the murder investigation, Inspector Wise, a widower, also struggles to raise his seven children, one of whom is mentally retarded, with only the assistance of his intelligent but irritating suffragist cousin.
The quintessential outsider, Inspector Wise, tries to maintain his family in a faith he now questions and find justice in a society riven by class privilege. Although wounded by the deaths of both body and spirit that occur throughout the book, he doggedly continues to battle the stupidity of his superiors, the arrogance of the upper classes, the suspicion of the lower classes, his own flawed nature, and even the omnipresent London fog. In the process, the Inspector’s heart is opened and he finds an unexpected redemption awaiting him at the end of his efforts.
Read the full novel, Little Deaths
Supplemental Material:
- Additional Ideas – Simon
- Character List (Revised)
- Character List (Brief)
- Chronology
- Character Movement (Figure)
- Chapter Outline
- Characters
- Mission / Narrative
- Mission Statement
- Mission Statement II / Phases
- Original Brief Outline
- Thoughts
- Original Mission Statement
- Brief Outline
- Publicity Summary
- Revised Outline II
- Revised Outline III
- Series Ideas
- Simon’s Character and Evolution
- Summary