The Taxidermist's Daughter
Kate Mosse
Price: £13.99
On Sale: 11 September 2014
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About the Book
Sussex, 1912. In a churchyard, villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will die in the coming year are thought to walk. Here, where the estuary leads out to the sea, superstitions still hold sway.Standing alone is the taxidermist's daughter. At twenty-two, Constantia Gifford lives with her father in a decaying house: it contains all that is left of Gifford's once world-famous museum of taxidermy. The stuffed birds that used to grace every parlour are out of fashion, leaving Gifford a disgraced and bitter man. The string of events that led to the museum's closure are never spoken of and an accident has robbed Connie of any memory of those days.The bell begins to toll and all eyes are fixed on the church. No one sees the gloved hands holding a garotte. As the last notes fade into the dark, a woman lies dead. While the village braces itself against rising waters and the highest tide of the season, Connie struggles to discover who is responsible - and why the incident is causing memories to surface from her own vanished years. Does she know the figure she sees watching from the marshes? Who is the mysterious caller that leaves a note without being seen? And what is the secret that lies at the heart of Blackthorn House, hidden among the bell jars of her father's workshop?The Taxidermist's Daughter is the stunning new novel from the multi-million copy bestselling author, Kate Mosse.
Author
Kate Mosse CBE FRSL is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. The author of eleven novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy, The Joubert Family Chronicles (the number one bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship and The Map of Bones), and number one bestselling Gothic fiction. Her highly acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World. The Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, she is the founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, President of the Festival of Chichester, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Authors and a Trustee of the British Library.
Awards
Short-listed for Specsavers National Book Awards: International Author of the Year 2014 (UK).
Reviews
“Glossy as a crow's wing. Sure as a surgeon's scalpel. I bloody loved it.” – Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat
“Fans of Mosse will love this haunting tale of murder and suspicion” –Elle
“I loved the atmosphere: the time, the place, the weather, the cold. An unholy collision of Daphne du Maurier and Agatha Christie” – Anthony Horowitz, creator and writer of Foyle's War
“Mosse throws one bravura scene after another. This is a book full of heart and superb twists, with an unforgettable heroine and a mystery that will have you thinking long after you've turned the last page” – The Independent
“A superb atmospheric thriller, its Gothic overtones commanding attention from the very first page” – Daily Mail
“Glossy as a crow's wing. Sure as a surgeon's scalpel. I bloody loved it.” – Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat
“Fans of Mosse will love this haunting tale of murder and suspicion” –Elle
“I loved the atmosphere: the time, the place, the weather, the cold. An unholy collision of Daphne du Maurier and Agatha Christie” – Anthony Horowitz, creator and writer of Foyle's War
“Mosse throws one bravura scene after another. This is a book full of heart and superb twists, with an unforgettable heroine and a mystery that will have you thinking long after you've turned the last page” – The Independent
“A superb atmospheric thriller, its Gothic overtones commanding attention from the very first page” – Daily Mail
Product Details
ISBN: 9781409153764
Published: 11 September 2014
432 Pages