Book excerpt: Our detective is April Gladstone, Miss Firefly, a 15-year-old “little person” who yearns to leave the world of circus “freaks.” When Delilah, the star attraction of Captain Barney’s Circus, tumbles to her death from a tightrope, the suspicious Firefly sets out to investigate. She soon discovers that in Captain Barney’s Circus, things are not as they seem. This tale, set in 1889, in the time of the famous Jack the Ripper murders, is a sweet, quirky story that provides an exotic glimpse into the world of Victorian San Francisco’s Barbary Coast and the harsh, gritty world of the traveling circuses and freak shows.