The Apprentice of Split Crow Lane takes the forgotten case of a child murder in 1866 as a springboard to delve deeply into the psyche of the Victorians. What Jane Housham finds, in this exploration of guilt, sexual deviance and madness, is a diagnosis that is still ripe for the challenging. Set around Gateshead, a five-year-old Irish girl named Sarah Melvin sets out over the fell to look for her father and a troubled young man makes a frightening leap of logic to save his own skin.