It isn’t long before Jenny becomes embroiled in an escalating plot of revenge orchestrated by her employer and also must manage Lilith’s ravings of the deal she has made with Melpomene, the tragic Greek Muse. The workers rush out and carry him to the director’s car, the only available vehicle to transport him to hospital. The story-telling is interrupted only once – when Haraldsson persuades the captain to let him give his lecture on fish and how it made the Nordic race superior.

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The Whispering Muse is a sinuous, dark spell of a story that left me reeling -- Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street A sumptuous piece of gothic theatre set in a theatre populated by the beautiful and the damned. Fallen on hard times - the cause of which is revealed later - Jennifer must provide for her family and despite being brought low by her circumstances, eagerly accepts the position of dresser. It may feel at first like a familiar story, a Victorian orphan having to work in service to look after her younger siblings, including a handicapped brother, Jenny has lost her position and fallen on hard times after her older brother ran off with anything of value he could get his hands on. De algún modo, en este libro, tanto énfasis en la tragedia hizo que los personajes tiendan a resultar unidimensionales.

There were truly horrifying moments in this book, that I must admit stretched the tradition of the Gothic genre for me, straying from the more subtle, ambiguous haunting style of atmosphere building. On stage, it’s as though Lilith is possessed by the characters she plays, yet off stage she is as tragic as the Muse who inspires her, and Jenny, sorry for her, befriends the troubled actress.

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell | Waterstones The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell | Waterstones

However, before we even reach the gruesome events we become tangled into the drama of these character’s personal affairs. Of course there's plentiful humour at his expense, but there's also a limit to how many times we can find a dullard's dullness amusing. Bridget Collins, author of number one bestseller, The Binding 'Deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists . As this was a cargo ship, Haraldsson was the only passenger so, at the captain’s table for meals, there were, in addition to the captain himself, five others – the first and second mates, the first engineer and the purser and a woman, whom Haraldsson assumed was the purser’s wife but later turned out to be the purser’s mistress. Jenny is invited to The Mercury theatre by its owner’s wife, Mrs Dyer, she fears its to recompense them for all her brother stole.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. This is a brilliantly paced gothic horror story, its setting within the London Victorian era so fitting and atmospheric. Set at the Mercury Theatre in Victorian London, Miss Jennifer Wilcox accepts a job offer from Mrs Dyer, the wife of the Mercury's owner. Laura Purcell, a skilful purveyor of gothic tales, has created another darkly twisting narrative in The Whispering Muse * Sunday Times * Laura Purcell has done it again.

Inspiration Information: “The Whispering Muse” | The New Yorker Inspiration Information: “The Whispering Muse” | The New Yorker

Haraldsson is deliberately not an endearing character but even he changes as a result of his voyage. What must it be like back stage, what are the relationships between the actors, what really happens in the dressing rooms and costume wardrobes? It was chilling and haunting and at times I literally had to stop reading because the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck were raised. Jenny Wilcox has an appointment with Mrs Dyer, wife of the owner of the Mercury Theatre, London and she’s very worried it has something to do with her errant brother Greg. glitteringly dark and mesmerising' Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra _______________ Be careful what you wish for.For Sjón – a poet and a compulsively metaphysical thinker – this self-imposed handicap is a hazardous tactic. I know it's early days yet, but it's just possible that The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell has gone straight from being one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2023, to being one of my favourite reads of the entire year.