It is rare to find a place that feels so instantly like home, but when Annie Sweet goes to a viewing of number 43 Stanley Street it is almost as if the house chooses her, speaking to her through the walls. She moves with her family into this dream address, yet all is not what it seems.Instead of bringing her family together the house seems to drive them apart. Her husband spends more and more time at work, while her young daughter becomes obsessed with acting, taking up numerous school auditions and leaving Annie alone in Stanley Street.She is soon consumed by the house and all those that have lived there before, especially the young and talented Lily Painter. As Lily, a heralded chorus girl, disappears from the papers and annals of the time Annie becomes engrossed in a famous Victorian crime, a case of baby-buying and infanticide. Mesmerised by the horrors uncovered she delves deeper and deeper into the history of her predecessors, discovering a dark and disturbing episode in London's vibrant past.The Ghost of Lily Painter is a wonderfully poignant novel, one which spans the century and brings to life a shadowy truth from our past. With a fleet of extraordinary characters, and a beautiful insight into the way we lived then, this novel explores the extraordinary power of loss and redemption.