A Sunless Sea - Facts

 

The book starts in November, 1864.

Monk has been part of the Thames River Police for some time now. The Thames River Police was formed in 1800 to tackle theft and looting from ships anchored in the Pool of London and in the lower reaches and docks of the Thames.[

He has his headquarters at Wapping Station. The Thames River Police merged with the Metropolitan Police Service in 1839 with that nascent force instigated by Robert Peel. Its base was (and remains) in Wapping High Street.

Zenia is found dead on Limehouse Pier. Limehouse Basin is a body of water two miles east of London Bridge that is also a navigable link between the River Thames and two of London's canals.

The main theme in the book is opium, and Monk discovers that Dr Lambourn was carrying out a research about the use of opium as the government wanted to pass a new law limiting the use of opium. When he discovers how dangerous using opium through a hollow needle was, he was murdered. He was found in One Tree Hill. One Tree Hill includes a 7 hectare public park, local nature reserve and Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, which is owned and managed by Southwark Council.

The characters talk about the Opium Wars and how the British behave atrociously. The Opium Wars were two conflicts waged between the Qing dynasty and the Western powers during the mid-19th century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and the British Empire. It was triggered by the Qing government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. he Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.

On the course of the investigation Oliver and Monk talk to William Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. William Ewart Gladstone  (29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting more than 60 years, he was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 12 years, spread over four non-consecutive terms (the most of any British prime minister), beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also was Chancellor of the Exchequer four times, for more than 12 years. 

Monk and Hester live at Paradise Place, Rotherhithe. Rotherhithe is a district of South London, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the east. It borders Bermondsey to the west and Deptford to the south-east. The district is a part of the Docklands area.