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

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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...