About the book

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 ********************************************************************************************************** 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...