Book - Jack of Hearts and Queen of Spades by Joanne Harris

Henry Paul Chester is a Victorian artist whose past hides a terrible secret that left deep marks on him and his art. His obsession with painting young and "innocent" girls leads him to Effie, a nine-year-old girl, whom he begins to use as a model. Ten years later, Chester and Effie marry, and it is precisely at this moment that their relationship sours. Effie then seeks comfort from Chester's rival, the unscrupulous Moses Zachary Harper. But it is not he who comforts her, but Fanny Miller, the owner of a brothel, who sees in sweet Effie the daughter murdered ten years earlier. Together they try to uncover Chester's dark past and sketch a sinister plan to unmask him. But the use of magic always carries the danger of the occult… Victorians are famous for having built the concept of childhood as we see it today. In her provocative way, Joanne Harris describes how some of these same Victorians perverted their own creation.