Deborah Hopkinson

Eel has trou­bles of his own: As an orphan and a “mud­lark,” he spends his days in the filthy Riv­er Thames, search­ing for bits of things to sell. He’s being hunt­ed by Fish­eye Bill Tyler, and a nas­ti­er man nev­er walked the streets of Lon­don. And he’s got a secret that costs him four pre­cious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fate­ful August day in 1854 — the day the dead­ly cholera epi­dem­ic (“blue death”) comes to Broad Street.
 
Every­one believes that cholera is spread through poi­so­nous air. But one man, Dr. John Snow, has a dif­fer­ent the­o­ry. As the epi­dem­ic surges, it’s up to Eel and his best friend, Flor­rie, to gath­er evi­dence to prove Dr. Snow’s the­o­ry — before the entire neigh­bor­hood is wiped out.