Wicked deeds require the cover of darkness.... The outstanding atmospheric chiller from Sunday Times bestseller Laura Purcell

*LAURA PURCELL'S THRILLING NEW NOVEL THE WHISPERING MUSE IS AVAILABLE NOW* Winner of the Historical Crime Book of the Year 2021 Award at the 2022 Fingerprint Crime Awards ‘Dripping with atmosphere with a corkscrew plot, Laura Purcell just gets better and better’ STACEY HALLS ‘It truly kept me guessing to the very last page’ SONIA VELTON Wicked deeds require the cover of darkness... A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead – and to try and identify their killers – in this beguiling new tale from Laura Purcell. Silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another... Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them. But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back... What secrets lie hidden in the darkness?

"Purcell is fast establishing herself as the doyenne of gothic mystery, and this positively oozes uncanny menace … Niftily plotted and deftly researched, it’s one to read with the lights blazing and the door bolted" - Mail on Sunday

"A clever and well-researched novel with a good twist, and it shows the nightmare of life for single women of limited means in the 19th century" - Literary Review

"With atmospheric séances, a cast of quirky characters and a hint of the supernatural, this will have you guessing to the end" - Woman&Home

"There’s always a satisfying edge to Laura Purcell’s writing and The Shape of Darkness is no exception: this is dark, atmospheric storytelling that both satisfies and unsettles" - Living Magazine

"There are ghosts, ghouls and ghastly goings on aplenty in the tale of Agnes Darken … There are some spine-chilling moments in this twisty tale, and fans of murder mystery and gothic fiction will love getting lost in Agnes and Pearl’s spooky world" - Daily Mirror