Readers of Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Stacey Halls and Eve Chase will love this powerful, atmospheric and blackly gothic depiction of Victorian artistic life from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris. Death, love, obsession, sex, murder and magic combine to make a compelling and haunting read...

'A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel' -- Time Out
'A very compulsive read' -- ***** Reader review
'Tremendous' -- ***** Reader review
'Real gothic page turner' -- ***** Reader review
'A truly dark, ghostly and powerful read' -- ***** Reader review
'The tension is gripping and kept going to the very end. I read it in one sitting!' -- ***** Reader review
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Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her.

Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken.

Drawn into a dangerous underworld of prostitution, murder and blackmail, she must finally plan her revenge...

The reissue of Joanne Harris's second novel, a consuming Gothic tale set in 19th century London

About the Author
Joanne Harris is the internationally renowned and award-winning author of over twenty novels. Her Whitbread-shortlisted novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is the author of several other bestsellers, including The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur Le Cure and The Strawberry Thief. She has also written acclaimed novels in such diverse genres as fantasy based on Norse myth (Runemarks, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki), and the Malbry cycle of dark psychological thrillers (Gentlemen & Players, Blueeyedboy, and Different Class). Born in Barnsley, of an English father and a French mother, she spent fifteen years as a teacher before (somewhat reluctantly) becoming a full-time writer. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE, and in 2022 an OBE. She lives in Yorkshire, plays bass and flute in a band first formed when she was sixteen, and works in a shed in her garden. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and served for four years as Chair of the Society of Authors. She also has a form of synaesthesia which enables her to smell colours. Red, she says, smells of chocolate.

Reviews
A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel * Time Out *



Book Information
ISBN 9780552771788
Author Joanne Harris
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Black Swan
Publisher Transworld Publishers Ltd
Weight(grams) 304g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 127mm * 28mm