The First Two Books of 2023: A Bronte Mystery and a Victorian Gothic 'Fascination'.
I am very excited to give a peek into my upcoming book reads and reviews of 2023!
These two books were on my wishlist as they are both written by British female authors whose work I have enjoyed immensely over the years.
I am very grateful and excited to be able to read proofs of A Gift of Poison - the fourth novel in the Bronte Mystery series written by Rowan Coleman under the name Bella Ellis.
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
Haworth 1847 – Anne and Emily Brontë have had their books accepted for publication, while Charlotte’s has been rejected everywhere, creating a strained atmosphere at the parsonage.
At the same time, a shocking court case has recently concluded, acquitting a workhouse master of murdering his wife by poison. Everyone thinks this famously odious and abusive man is guilty. However, he insists he is many bad things but not a murderer. When an attempt is made on his life, he believes it to be the same person who killed his wife and applies to the detecting sisters for their help.
Despite reservations, they decide that perhaps, as before, it is only they who can get to the truth and prove him innocent – or guilty – without a shadow of doubt.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.
Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.
Unable to train to be a doctor as he’d hoped, Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.
But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of dark deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…
Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
PRODUCT DETAILS
Author Essie Fox
Publisher Orenda Books Ltd.
Imprint Orenda Books
Pages 300
Format Hardback
ISBN 9781914585524
Publishing Date: 22/06/2023
Price £16.99
stay tuned for both of my reviews upon the publishing dates.
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