The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

A good well written Victorian murder mystery in the venerable tradition of Arthur Conan Doyle and Willie Collins.

London, 1872 and 16 year old Sally Lockhart has just seen a man fall dead in front of her.  Her father, the Lockhart in Lockhart and Selby, Shipping Agents, has been lost at sea and she has come to their offices desperate to try and find out why.  But when she utters the phrase she has received on a mysterious note 'the seven blessings' to Mr Higgs, the Company Secretary, he suffers a heart attack and dies.  Suddenly she finds herself thrust into a lethal high adventure with only the office boy Jim Taylor as an ally.  Opium smuggling, fraud, piracy and a priceless Indian ruby make for a heady headlong story and Sally Lockhart has to dig deep emerging as a truly wonderful heroine.