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The Whispering Muse: The most spellbinding gothic novel of the year, packed with passion and suspense

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It's deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists. Our main protagonist is Jenny Wilcox, who after being fired from her previous place of employment is hired by Mrs Dyer, wife to the owner of The Mercury theatre in London’s West End, to dress their leading lady Lilith, who’ll play Lady Macbeth in their first ever production of Macbeth.

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell Book Review: The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell

Her life has clearly not been easy, abandoned by her father and left in debt by her brother, Jenny must provide for her younger siblings, one of whom has a disability. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. Once inside the theatre, Jenny discovers that this is going to be more than just a simple job of dressing and reporting activities to Mrs Dyer. All of Sjón's fiction so far has been admirably translated by Victoria Cribb, in close consultation with the author, whose English is so good that he might be capable of tackling the job himself. All the cod meals are disappointing, insipid, flavourless and not, in Haraldsson’s view, properly cooked.Towards the end, Sjón gets fed up with maintaining a Pooteresque tone for Haraldsson, and the former fish inspector relates an eerily vivid account of Caeneus in bird form, scavenging for putrid meat near the decaying ruins of the Argo.

The Whispering Muse: The most spellbinding gothic novel of

But as the story progresses, Jenny realises that she has bitten more than she can chew and is soon hanging between the two women, in turn liking and hating both these complicated characters. At the time of writing, I've attended the show in the State Theatre in Melbourne a total of 4 times, with my final attendance last night! However, the women emit an awful stench, apparently caused by Aphrodite, as punishment for driving their men away. It’s easy to see why she agrees to Mrs Dyer’s offer, even when her requests become increasingly immoral.We get Sjón’s usual myths, in this case two known myths but somewhat retold, we get his surrealistic touch at the end of the book and we get the characters round the captain’s table, who enable us to see Haraldsson in a somewhat different light, quite a lot for a short book. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and, desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. With complex and morally corrupt characters, haunting settings and spine-tingling prose, this needs to be on your reading pile. Overall, though, The Whispering Muse is less dense with allusion and historical seepage than previous novels such as The Blue Fox and From the Mouth of the Whale.

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell | Goodreads The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell | Goodreads

Her favourite authors include; Tolkien, Jen Williams, John Gwynne, Joe Abercrombie, Alix E Harrow, and Fonda Lee. I don’t think there are as many people in the 21st Century who do the Gothic novel as well as Laura Purcell. After her brother abandoned her and ran off to marry an actress, Jenny Wilcox finds herself in a precarious position, unable to look after the three younger siblings her brother left her to care for, so when she gets offered a job at The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End as the dresser for their new lead actress, Lilith, Jenny jumps at the chance, even after she is informed the job is part dresser, part spy.Their brother ran off with another man’s fiancée and stole from Jenny’s employer threatening to bring her record into disrepute. The theatrical setting and use of the tragedies on stage that are woven expertly into the unfolding story is glitteringly dark and mesmerising -- Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of ARIADNE and ELEKTRA For those who like to scare themselves silly, there's a new book from the queen of gothic chillers * Good Housekeeping * In The Whispering Muse, Laura Purcell has crafted a totally immersive take on the Faustus myth - dark and disturbing, but with so much heart.

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