A dazzling new series from bestselling historical fiction author Deborah Challinor, exploring the fascinating world of Victorian funeral customs and featuring Sydney's first female undertaker.<br/>'Men have been undertakers for hundreds of years. Not women, men. You don't belong.'<br/><br/>Sydney, 1865. Seventeen-year-old Tatiana Caldwell travels from London to make a new life. Her path leads her to Crowe Funeral Services, where she apprentices under the tutelage of Titus Crowe, the enigmatic owner.<br/><br/>Tatty finds herself drawn to the fascinating conventions of the funeral trade - plumed horses and processions, mutes and mortuary trains, flowers and finery - as well as the more visceral new practice of embalming. Soon she marries, and after the sudden death of her husband, Titus, she becomes Sydney's first female undertaker.<br/><br/>Her hard-won stability is shattered when Elias Nuttall, a ruthless rival in the funeral trade, accuses Tatty of murdering her husband. Facing public scorn and legal peril, Tatty gathers an unlikely band of allies in a battle to clear her name.<br/><br/>Black Silk and Sympathy is a riveting and realistic journey through the front parlours and dark alleys of 1860s Sydney, from the Botanic Gardens in the morning to the cemetery at midnight.<br/><br/>'In this expertly crafted novel, Challinor delivers a captivating tale of resilience, reinvention and determination ... [with] a thrilling twist' Books+Publishing<br/><br/>Praise for Deborah Challinor:<br/><br/>'A master storyteller' Better Reading<br/><br/>'Perfectly blends fact and fiction' NZ Herald