The Orient Express is not just one train route, but it was possible to travel from Paris to Istanbul in three days, as can be evidenced from train timetables of the day. The Venice branch of the route was added a few years after the time of this book and so I amalgamated the train route for the sake of the narrative.
Thank you to the British Library for allowing me access to their rare and fragile nineteenth-century newspaper, patent and ephemera collections. I can honestly say that that I found things there that no author would ever be able to make up.
Thank you also to the Brooklyn Museum for their wonderful online collection of black and white survey photographs of Istanbul from 1903.
And lastly, I tip my brass-goggled hat to those women who fought for the rights of women and suffrage. From Mary Wollstonecraft to the Pankhursts and beyond. The faces of the past bring history to life.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For most debut authors, the path to publication is a hard journey that is often lonely, but I was deeply fortunate to have met so many wonderful people along the way. To Celia Brayfield and Danuta Kean, who are both Oracles in this world: Without your wisdom and guidance, this series would never have seen its way to completion. To my dear friends: Mareen Goebel, who spent hours reading and who helped me heal the scars; Catalina Buciu, my PhD research partner, who always has time to listen to me bemoan the injustices of this world; and Siobhan McVeigh, who has been writing with me for the longest time. To all my friends at Brunel, who went through the painful process of turning a tiny ember of an idea into a big roaring work of fiction with me. To my agent, Oliver Munson who has supernatural powers when it comes to books. To my editors Tricia Narwani and Michael Rowley and the wonderful people at Ebury and Del Rey: Your wonderful insights and professional, supportive approach made the editing and production process seem almost effortless. And lastly, to my partner, Mark Hunt, who knows so much and who patiently puts up with the unenviable task of living with a writer.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LIESEL SCHWARZ is a lifelong fan of nineteenth-century Gothic literature. She is also a hopeless romantic who loves Victorians, steampunk, fairies, fantasy monsters, the fin de siècle, and the correct way to drink absinthe. She also likes medieval things, pirates, zombies, space operas, and all subjects in between.
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