When seventeen-year-old Dodger rescues a young woman from two assailants on a dark and dirty London street, he sets in motion events that monumentally change his life. Dodger knows the streets and everyone who lives on them, and he’s used that knowledge to his advantage as a tosher, combing the underground sewer system for stray coins and lost valuables. Now, with the help of writer Charlie Dickens, Dodger works that same social system to investigate the attack on Simplicity and to protect the mysterious young woman from further harm. Along the way he encounters other Victorian notables, real and imagined, including Sir Robert Peel, philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, and infamous barber Sweeney Todd. Deft plotting, vivid scene-setting, and fully developed characters (especially that of his housemate and mentor, Solomon) all help propel the irrepressible Dodger along his path to fulfillment and happiness. (Age 13 and older)