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* A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF 2023 * 'Ingenious' -
THE TIMES 'A dark, inventive story' - SUNDAY TIMES Many would find
much to fear in Fyneshade's dark and crumbling corridors, its
unseen master and silent servants. But not I. For they have far
more to fear from me... On the day of her beloved grandmother's
funeral, Marta discovers that she is to become governess to the
young daughter of Sir William Pritchard. Separated from her lover
and discarded by her family, Marta has no choice but to journey to
Pritchard's ancient and crumbling house, Fyneshade, in the wilds of
Derbyshire. All is not well at Fyneshade. Marta's pupil, little
Grace, can be taught nothing, and Marta takes no comfort from the
silent servants who will not meet her eye. More intriguing is that
Sir William is mysteriously absent, and his son and heir Vaughan is
forbidden to enter the house. Marta finds herself drawn to Vaughan,
despite the warnings of the housekeeper that he is a danger to all
around him. But Marta is no innocent to be preyed upon. Guided by
the dark gift taught to her by her grandmother, she has made her
own plans. And it will take more than a family riven by murderous
secrets to stop her... Perfect for readers of Laura Purcell, Jessie
Burton and Stacey Halls, Fyneshade is a dark and twisted gothic
novel unlike any you've read before...
'I was entranced from the first page to the last' - ANTONIA HODGSON
'A darkly delicious joy of a historical gothic novel' - ESSIE FOX
Many would find much to fear in Fyneshade's dark and crumbling
corridors, its unseen master and silent servants. But not I. For
they have far more to fear from me... On the day of her
grandmother's funeral, Marta discovers that she is to be sent to be
governess at Fyneshade, her charge the young daughter of the owner,
Sir William Pritchard. All is not well at Fyneshade. Sir William is
mysteriously absent, and his son and heir Vaughan is forbidden to
enter the house. Marta finds herself drawn to him, despite the
warnings of the housekeeper that Vaughan is a danger to all around
him. But Marta is no innocent to be preyed upon. Guided by the dark
gift taught to her by her grandmother, she has made her own plans.
It will take more than a family riven by murderous secrets to stop
her... Perfect for readers of Laura Purcell, Jessie Burton and
Stacey Halls, Fyneshade is a dark and twisted gothic novel unlike
any you've read before...
When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in
London all that life can afford - Samuel Johnson In fact, Dr
Johnson was only half right. There is in London much more than life
- there is power. It ebbs and flows with the rhythms of the city,
makes runes from the alignments of ancient streets and hums with
the rattle of trains and buses; it waxes and wanes with the
patterns of the business day. It is a new kind of magic: urban
magic. Enter a London where magicians ride the Last Train, implore
favours of The Beggar King and interpret the insane wisdom of The
Bag Lady. Enter a London where beings of power soar with the
pigeons and scrabble with the rats, and seek insight in the
half-whispered madness of the blue electric angels. Enter the
London of Matthew Swift, where rival sorcerers, hidden in plain
sight, do battle for the very soul of the city ...
A fast-paced historical mystery with breath-taking twists and turns
that takes us from the bohemian world of late 19th-Century Paris to
a deadly secret at the heart of the British Empire. March 1881,
London's East End. Kitty Peck, a spirited but vulnerable
seventeen-year-old, is the reluctant heiress to Paradise, the
criminal empire previously overseen by the formidable Lady Ginger.
Far from the colour and camaraderie of the music hall where Kitty
had been working, this newfound power brings with it isolation and
uncertainty. Desperate to reconnect with Joey, her estranged
brother, Kitty travels to Paris. Reunited at last, she is unable to
refuse his request to take a child back to London. Within days of
her return it's clear that someone has followed them... and this
someone is determined to kill the child... and anyone who stands in
their way.
'Kitty Peck is a heroine amongst heroines.' MIRANDA CARTER
'Evocative and addictive.' Stylist's Best Fiction and Feminist
Reads for November Even though Paradise was riddled with rot, I
reckoned I could make it a cleaner place for the poor types who
came with the dirty trades. I could make them all love me, I
thought. I was wrong about that. I've been wrong about so much.
When Kitty Peck took over Paradise - her grandmother's East End
criminal empire - she thought she would be able to run it her own
way. What Kitty didn't know was that her grandmother had also left
her violently entwined with the Barons of London. This coterie of
fiends will stop at nothing to gain power, and they've already
robbed Kitty of so much that she held dear. Kitty is determined to
do away with the dark underbelly of Paradise and to transform her
music halls into the jewels of Limehouse. But as she begins her
final assault on the Barons, a new threat appears in the form of an
eerily charismatic preacher on a crusade against 'wickedness and
vice'. Can Kitty save Paradise from destruction, without losing any
more of the people she loves?
Limehouse, 1880: Dancing girls are going missing from 'Paradise' -
the criminal manor with ruthless efficiency by the ferocious Lady
Ginger. Seventeen-year-old music hall seamstress Kitty Peck finds
herself reluctantly drawn into a web of blackmail, depravity and
murder when The Lady devises a singular scheme to discover the
truth. But as Kitty's scandalous and terrifying act becomes the
talk of London, she finds herself facing someone even more deadly
and horrifying than The Lady. Bold, impetuous and blessed with more
brains than she cares to admit, it soon becomes apparent that it's
up to the unlikely team of Kitty and her stagehand friend, Lucca,
to unravel the truth and ensure that more girls do not meet with a
similar fate. But are Kitty's courage and common sense and Lucca's
book learning a match for the monster in the shadows? Their
investigations take them from the gin-fuelled halls and doss houses
of the East End to the champagne-fuelled galleries of the West End.
Take nothing at face value: Kitty is about to step out on a path of
discovery that changes everything . . .
Summer 1881: the streets of Limehouse are thick with opium... and
menace. At eighteen Kitty Peck has inherited Paradise, a sprawling
criminal empire on the banks of the Thames. Determined to do things
differently to her fearsome grandmother, she now realises that the
past casts a long and treacherous shadow. Haunted by a terrible
secret and stalked by a criminal cabal intent on humiliation and
destruction, Kitty must fight for the future of everyone she cares
for...
'Don't look back. It wants you to look back.' London's soul has
gone missing. Lost? Kidnapped? Murdered? Nobody knows - but when
Sharon Li unexpectedly discovers she's a shaman, she is immediately
called upon to use her newfound powers of oneness with the City to
rescue it from a slow but inevitable demise. The problem is, while
everyone expects Sharon to have all the answers - from the Midnight
Mayor to Sharon's magically-challenged self-help group - she
doesn't have a clue where to start. But with London's soul missing
and the Gate open, there are creatures loose that won't wait for
her to catch up before they go hunting. STRAY SOULS is the first
novel in the Magicals Anonymous series, set in the same fantastical
London as the Matthew Swift novels.
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The Garden Stories (Hardcover)
Kate Griffin; Illustrated by Marleen Starksfield-Lowe
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R509
R329
Discovery Miles 3 290
Save R180 (35%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Matthew Swift, Midnight Mayor, is in charge. And London is having
its issues. The new drug on the market is fairy dust and it turns
humans into walking drug labs. Teenage vandals are being hunted by
a mystical creature. And criminals are dying by magical means. If
Swift is going to save London from a rising tide of blood, he's
going to have to learn his lessons - and fast.
It's said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then
the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall. As it happens,
that's not so far from the truth . . . One by one, the magical
wards that guard the city are failing: the London Wall defiled with
cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London
Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural
defences - a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten
urban legends - formed a formidable magical shield. Protection for
the City of London against . . . well, that's the question, isn't
it? What could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city?
Against his better judgement, resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is
about to find out. And if he's lucky, he might just live long
enough to do something about it . . .
Sharon Li: apprentice shaman and community support officer for the
magically inclined.
It wasn't the career Sharon had in mind, but she's getting used to
running Magicals Anonymous and learning how to Be One With The
City.
When the Midnight Mayor goes missing, leaving only a suspiciously
innocent-looking umbrella behind him, Sharon finds herself
promoted. Her first task: find the Midnight Mayor. The only clues
she has are a city dryad's cryptic message of doom and several
pairs of abandoned shoes ...
Suddenly, Sharon's job feels a whole lot harder.
Shaman Sharon Li's adventures continue among the magical beings of
modern-day London in this spell-binding sequel to "Stray
Souls."
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