Fingersmith is a typical Sarah Waters' novel in that she has written a Victorian-style novel set in historical England with interesting female characters, a lesbian love story and a complex plot line. The complexity, however, of the plot of this novel far outstrips the others that I have read so far. In Fingersmith, a young orphan, Sue Trinder, is raised by a baby farmer Mrs. Sucksby in a squalid flat in London. A con-artist gentleman with a gambling problem comes into the house with a plan to swindle a country girl, Maud Lilly, out of her inheritance. Sue follows the gentleman (known to his friends as Gentleman) to execute the plan and from there, everything is as you expect, until it isn't anymore.
I can't explain more without spoiling the twists and turns, but I will say that I haven't read a 500 page novel this quickly in a long time. Knowing that there will be twists pushes you through the somewhat unsurprising first third of the book. This section raises some questions and keeps you guessing, but the real drive comes in the latter two-thirds. I will leave it at that - this is a provocative suspenseful Victorian novel that you never see coming.
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