Susan Hill meets Wilkie Collins in Alison Littlewood's latest
chiller: mad-doctor Nathaniel is obsessed with the beautiful Mrs
Harleston - but is she truly delusional? Or is she hiding secrets
that should never be uncovered . . . ? Haunted by his father's
suicide, Nathaniel Kerner walks away from the highly prestigious
life of a consultant to become a mad-doctor. He takes up a position
at Crakethorne Asylum, but the proprietor is more interested in
phrenology and his growing collection of skulls than the patients'
minds. Nathaniel's only interesting case is Mrs Victoria Harleston:
her husband accuses her of hysteria and delusions - but she accuses
him of hiding secrets far more terrible. Nathaniel is increasingly
obsessed with Victoria, but when he has her mesmerised, there are
unexpected results: Victoria starts hearing voices, the way she
used to - her grandmother always claimed they came from beyond the
grave - but it also unleashes her own powers of mesmerism . . . and
a desperate need to escape. Increasingly besotted, Nathaniel finds
himself caught up in a world of seances and stage mesmerism in his
bid to find Victoria and save her. But constantly hanging over him
is this warning: that doctors are apt to catch the diseases with
which they are surrounded - whether of the body or the mind . . .
'[An] enjoyable excursion . . . gripping' The Sunday Times
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