Book Synopsis:
A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead – and to try and identify their killers – in this beguiling new tale from Laura Purcell.
Silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another…
Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back…
What secrets lie hidden in the darkness?
The Shape Of Darkness is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below or through your local indie bookstore.
My Review:
Wow I so enjoyed this dark, atmospheric read from an author who’s quickly becoming one of my favourites in this genre.
One of the things that most stands out in this book is the fantastic way the author has of setting the scene so that the reader feels like they are actually there watching everything unfold. I often felt like i could picture things happening clearly as if they were unfolding right in front of me. At some points I thought I could smell the things being described which was a new experience for me.
The characters were great creations who I warmed to quickly. I felt a lot of sympathy with Agnes and her struggles to make ends meet. This book focuses on what life was like for the poor in Victorian England with the daily struggle to try and keep out of the poor house or jail. I felt a lot of sympathy towards Agnes as she seemed like a kind hearted lady who was trying to care for everyone at once. It was interesting to see this side of Victorian England and I found myself researching a few things as I wanted to find out more.
This book gripped me from the start and was responsible for a few late nights as I found it hard to put down at times. There were lots of twists that took me by surprise and kept me guessing until the end which I always love. The ending was surprising and not at all how I expected it to end which I thought was very clever.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Raven for my copy of this book. If you are a fan of gothic thillers then I thoroughly recommend this book and all of the author’s previous ones too!
About The Author:
Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs. Her first novel for Raven Books THE SILENT COMPANIONS won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include THE CORSET (US title THE POISON THREAD), BONE CHINA (US title THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS) and THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS (2021)
Over The Rainbow Blog 
Thanks for the blog tour support Jo x
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