Publisher's Synopsis
This is the third book in the Crozier Chronicles series. A collection of novels loosely based of factual events that took place in and around Islington. The book provides a further insight into the residents of the fictional, Crozier Dwellings - a small tenement block situated in the heart of the borough. The books cover an amazing array of characters who resided in the dwellings at various times throughout the 1900s. This prequel begins with the arrival of Vilyam in England in the late 1800s and settled in Whitechapel before moving to Islington, it covers the period up to the First World War. The tragic events that took place in and around the Dwellings that Vilyam helped to initiate take the reader up to the first novel - Trial & Error. Vilyam Kosko is a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe. A handsome rogue who is always looking for The Main Chance - as long as it doesn't involve work. By pure chance, he meets Vera, who has struggled to survive in late Victorian London and is on the verge of suicide. He then performs possibly the only unselfish act in his life by rescuing her, though even that was as much of an accident as an act of kindness. For Vera, although she doesn't know it, she has jumped from frying pan to fryer, for after falling in love with him - the price of her redemption proves very costly. While for Vilyam, maintaining the high standard of living he thinks he deserves also comes at a price- resulting in lengthy spells in prison and a charge of murder.The book provides a taste of life in one of the poorest ghetto areas of London during the period that followed the Jack the Ripper murders. As Vera drags herself out of the slums she then witnesses the world of a government minister and the landed gentry, but she can't allow herself to get carried away while Vilyam persists in haunting her.Are there any lengths that Vilyam wouldn't go to in an effort to escape the struggles of everyday existence? Our story culminates in a trial for murder and a death sentence; while his broken wife and son only watch helplessly and hopelessly.A tale of love, marriage and murder.