When Shehana finds Vlora, stabbed and dying, on her rough London estate, she stops to try to help her. In so doing, she enters a world completely foreign to her own. Vlora had come to England illegally with her brother to work, and ended up a prostitute. Now Shehana must find Vlora's brother and, with him, try to track down the killer.Shehana can't tell anyone what's going on: not her strict parents who want her to work hard at school and marry a man of their choosing; not her best friend, who would never understand; and certainly not her boyfriend. She hasn't even been able to tell him of her secret dream of going away to university.It seems that Vlora's brother may be the only one she can talk to. But can she trust him, and what exactly does he know about his sister's life, and her death?

キャサリン・ジョンソンの筆致は、ロンドンの片隅に潜む「見えない人々」の息遣いを生々しく描き出します。本作の魅力は、ミステリーの枠を超え、個人のアイデンティティと抑圧的な現実が激突する瞬間にあります。厳格な規律下で生きる少女が、異界の住人の死を機に自らの殻を破り、剥き出しの真実へ踏み出す過程は、読者の魂を激しく揺さぶります。 物語の核心にあるのは、境界線に立つ人々の連帯と孤独です。どこにも属せない秘密を抱えた者が他者の死を追う姿は、自らの人生を取り戻すための切実な祈りに似ています。嘘に満ちた日常の裏で、唯一の救いが暗闇にしかないという皮肉。著者が仕掛けたこの残酷で美しい魂の物語を、ぜひその目で見届けてください。