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Palace of Shadows
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Palace of Shadows
$3799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers who enjoy dark historical fiction, Gothic fantasy, and atmospheric mysteries, especially fans of works like The Essex Serpent and Piranesi. Perfect for those intrigued by richly woven plots blending the supernatural with Victorian history.
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See moreFrom the prize-winning, critically acclaimed author of the City Blues Quartet comes a Yorkshire-set gothic masterpiece to rival The Essex Serpent
"I'm not asking you to build something impossible. I'm asking you to build something that contains all the strangeness and confusion that you can muster."
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
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Description
An outstanding historical novel for fans of The Essex Serpent and Piranesi, Ray Celestin's Palace of Shadows can lay claim to having at its centre the most Gothic House of them all...
"I'm not asking you to build something impossible. I'm asking you to build something that contains all the strangeness and confusion that you can muster."
Samuel Etherstone, a penniless artist, is adrift in London. His disturbing art is shunned by patrons and critics alike, his friend Oscar Wilde is now an exile living in Paris, and a personal tragedy has taken its toll. So when he is contacted by a mysterious heiress, Mrs Chesterfield, and asked to work on a commission for the house she is building on the desolate Smugglers' Coast of North Yorkshire, he accepts the offer.
Staying overnight in the local village pub, Samuel is warned not to spend too much time there. He is told of the fate of the house's original architect, Francisco Varano, chilling tales of folk driven mad by the house, of it being built on haunted land where young girls have vanished, their ghosts now calling others to their deaths...
It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of Varano's disappearance. And yet its owner keeps adding wing upon wing, and no one will tell him the reason behind her chilling obsession... But as Samuel delves deeper into the mysteries that swirl about the house, the nature of the project becomes terrifyingly clear.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Guardian named it among the Best Crime and Thrillers of 2023, praising its chilling Gothic transformation of a true story. The Sunday Express called it "a beguiling standalone historical thriller" with a jaw-dropping finale, and bestselling authors Laura Shepherd-Robinson and Andrew Taylor have lauded its dark entertainment and richly crafted atmosphere. The Financial Times called it an exhilarating move into Gothic territory, while Book described it as beautifully crafted and delightfully creepy.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781035019083
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 12 October 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Pan Books
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 25.0mm
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 438g
Pages: 352
About the Author
Ray Celestin is the author of the prize-winning City Blues Quartet, a series of novels which charts the twin histories of jazz and the Mob through the middle fifty years of the twentieth century. The first novel in the series, The Axeman's Jazz, won the CWA New Blood Dagger for best debut crime novel of the year, and was featured on numerous 'Books of the Year' lists. The second and third books in the series, Dead Man's Blues and The Mobster's Lament, were shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the Capital Crime Novel of the Year respectively. The final novel in the series, Sunset Swing, won both the CWA Historical Dagger and the Gold Dagger 2022 and was described in the Sunday Telegraph as the conclusion to 'one of the finest achievements of recent crime fiction'.
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