The Shape Of Darkness by Laura Purcell
As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, 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... Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?
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...
Author Bio:
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, was a Radio 2 and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club pick and was the winner of the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award, while her subsequent books – The Corset and Bone China – established Laura as the queen of the sophisticated, and spooky, page-turner.
Review
It’s official - Laura Purcell is the queen of modern gothic historical fiction, there is nothing she can do wrong. ‘The Shape of Darkness’ is a riveting tale that has all the hallmarks of this genre - the dark and dirty bleakness of Victorian Britain, a supernatural storyline and characters that pop off the page. It’s prose is claustrophobic but divine, there are enough red herrings and twists to make sure the reader is captivated, and when you read the final page you just want to dive straight back into the world which Laura has created.
Agnes is a silhouette portrait maker as a means to help support herself, her mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric. However, in the age of Victorian photographer less people are wanting her services. Agnes still gets a few clients but suddenly her clients are being murdered and she has no idea why?! Agnes has heard of mediums and spiritualism and attends a seance where we find Pearl an albino 9 year old who acts as the medium.
It is the characters in this book that makes it shine, especially those of Agnes and Pearl. They both share the same innocence and naivety. I personally don’t believe in spiritualism, even when my mum did, to me there is always an explanation and so many of the practitioners of this time period were charlatans. But even so this story sucks you in and you want to believe that Pearl actually has the gift, especially with her blackouts and memory loss. You want to believe that she is special and has a gift and not just being exploited by her elder half-sister. The resolution to the story for both these characters made me gasp, I totally wasn’t expecting either of them in all honesty. I thought the story was going in another direction but then that’s what I love. When an author surprises you it’s truly a magical moment and there were many of those moments in this book.
Truly this book is great - just read it peeps.
