A Pin to See the Peepshow

""I first encountered the novel nearly a decade ago and was gripped by it from the start: rarely, it seemed to me, had I been plunged by a piece of fiction into an emotional world so vivid, so complete, so convincingly untidy. . . . At the end of that second read I was as impressed as before, seduced all over again by the intensity of the narrative, by its dogged commitment to its flawed, doomed heroine. This time, too, I had brought along crucial new knowledge: the dynamics of the case on which Jesse based the book had formed part of the inspiration for my own novel of 1920s domestic turmoil, The Paying Guests. More intimate with the details of Thompson's story than I had been first time around, I was able to appreciate the fidelity - and the tremendous humanity - with which A Pin to See the Peepshow embraces Thompson's tragedy."" --Sarah Waters ""A brilliantly written, wonderfully psychologically complex look at women's lives in the early 20th century, and Tennyson Jesse's skill at making Julia's actions so utterly comprehensible and sympathetic is extraordinary."" --Book Snob