Night's Child - Maureen Jennings

After thirteen-year-old Agnes Fisher faints at school, her teacher, the young and still idealistic Amy Slade, is shocked to discover in the girl's desk two stereoscopic photographs. One is of a dead baby in its cradle, and on the back Agnes has scrawled a terrible message. Worse, the other photograph is of Agnes in a pose captioned "What Mr. Newly Wed Really Wants." When Agnes doesn't show up at school the next day, her teacher takes the two photographs to the police. Murdoch, furious at the sexual exploitation of such a young girl, resolves to find the photographer - and to put him behind bars.

Night's Child is the fifth novel in Maureen Jennings's highly praised historical mystery series. Three of Jennings's novels have been made into TV movies under the title Murder 19C: The Murdoch Mysteries. Bravo/CHUM is currently developing a series based on the character of Detective William Murdoch for broadcast in 2007.

Maureen Jennings's Detective Murdoch series has been a hit from the start. Published to rave reviews, the first novel, Except the Dying was shortlisted for both the Arthur Ellis and the Anthony first novel awards. The influential ,Drood Review picked Poor Tom Is Cold as one of its favourite mysteries of 2001. And Let Loose the Dogs was shortlisted for the 2004 Anthony Award for best historical mystery.

Three of the novels have been adapted for television, and four seasons of a television series,The Murdoch Mysteries, based on the characters from the novels, have been produced by Shaftesbury Films forCITY TV/Rogers, UKTV in Britain and distributed internationally by ITV/Granada international.

Born in the U.K., Jennings now lives in Toronto.

"The portrayal of Victorian life in Toronto rings true. We feel the chill of the poorly heated rooms and sympathize with all those at the margins of society. . . . This is a well-written, tightly plotted mystery."
- Quill & Quire

"Jennings has . . . a fine eye for telling details and good characters."
- Globe and Mail