Palace of Shadows

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.

Autorentext
Ray Celestin is novelist and screenwriter based in London. His debut novel, The Axeman's Jazz, won the CWA New Blood Award for best debut crime novel of the year, and was featured on numerous 'Books of the Year' lists. His follow-up, Dead Man's Blues, won the Historia Historical Thriller of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for a number of other awards. The novels are part of a series The City Blues Quartet which charts the twin histories of jazz and the mob through the middle fifty years of the twentieth century.

Klappentext

**'Chillingly gothic' - The Guardian, Best Crime and Thrillers of the Year

Inspired by the haunting true story of the Winchester Mystery House, Ray Celestin's Palace of Shadows is an outstanding historical thriller set against the awe-inspiring terror of the Yorkshire Moors. From the prize-winning author of the City Blues Quartet.**

1899. The desolate Smugglers' Coast of North Yorkshire is a place that strikes fear into those who live nearby. Unexplained deaths, suicides, young girls gone missing on the nearby moors - the locals say it's the grand house that drives people mad.

Still, when Samuel Etherstone is contacted by its reclusive owner, Mrs Chesterfield, and commissioned to work on the property, he accepts the offer. For a penniless artist adrift in London, the opportunity is too tempting to ignore.

It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of its architect's disappearance. And yet the widowed Mrs Chesterfield, 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 . . .

'Darkly entertaining' - Laura Shepherd-Robinson, bestselling author of The Square of Sevens

'Gloriously bonkers' - Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Shadows of London

'A beguiling standalone historical thriller . . . An absolute triumph' - Sunday Express

Zusammenfassung
From the prize-winning, critically acclaimed author of the City Blues Quartet comes a Yorkshire-set gothic masterpiece to rival The Essex Serpent