A huge crowd had gathered to watch Valerio’s display that evening. When he fell, the result was pure pandemonium. Newspaper reports of the day claim that several people fainted, and that one lady had to be conveyed to St. George’s Hospital. Valerio himself was carried away to his residence in Stanley Villas, Chelsea, where he died of his injuries in the early hours of the morning.

The depiction of Galezzo’s death in Rules for Ruin is an exact account of what happened when Valerio died except for two instances: to work with the time line of my story, I needed his performance to happen one year later, and one hour later in the evening. Other than that, the account of the events of that night is exactly as described in contemporaneous reports.

Lascars, Diversity, and Identity

At the close of Rules for Ruin, Euphemia Flite discovers that she’s the product of a liaison between a white British prostitute and a lascar sailor. In Culture and Empire, the fifth volume of Religion in Victorian Britain, edited by John Wolffe and published by Manchester University Press, a lascar is defined as “a native of the territories administered by the East India Company.” These Indian sailors were mainly Muslim, hailing from “Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab.”

Liaisons between foreign-born sailors and British prostitutes weren’t uncommon. Neither is the fact that Effie’s mixed heritage is largely accepted by Gabriel and her peers. Unlike the neighborhoods of the upper classes, the slums were diverse places, both in terms of race and religion.

That doesn’t mean that racism didn’t exist there. Far from it. However, in this story, Effie’s heritage is more central to her own identity than it is an obstacle to her happily ever after. She’s relieved to discover her origins, rather than shocked by any potential problems they might cause in Victorian high society. As someone who is half-Indian myself, I felt this distinction was important—the significance of who you are, the way it impacts your own sense of self, irrespective of the opinions or biases of the rest of the world.

Newspapers, Villages, and Bookshops

While most of the names and locations I use in Rules for Ruin are based on historical fact, there are several instances where I rely on fictional names, such as Farrer and Devonport’s bookshop in the Strand and the village of Trowley Green. Also fictional is the London Courant newspaper, which some of you will recognize as the newspaper that publishes the groundbreaking exposé on private asylums in my Parish Orphans of Devon series.

Acknowledgments

No book is written in isolation, this one least of all. From its inception, I’ve been blessed to have the support and encouragement of so many amazing people, both personally and professionally. To them, I extend my heartfelt gratitude.