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Raven Books is to publish two more 'gothic chillers' from Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions (Raven).
The publisher acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, including audio to Bone China and The Shape of Darkness – for publication in 2019 and 2020 – from Juliet Mushens at Caskie Mushens.
The first title Bone China sees a doctor move to the Cornish coast to establish a colony for those suffering from consumption after the death of his wife and all but one of his children; forty years later a heartbroken and disgraced young woman turns up at the same house, only to find it simmering with secrets. Then, in The Shape of Darkness a Victorian silhouette artist falls under suspicion when several of her clients are found dead, the fates eerily predicted by the profiles she has cut of them.
Purcell's first novel with Bloomsbury, The Silent Companions, was "one of the breakout books of last year", according to the publisher. It has sold 10,979 in hardback through Nielsen BookScan, was Goldsboro Book of the Month and was selected for the Radio 2 Book Club. The paperback will be published on the 5th April and Purcell's second Gothic chiller, The Corset, will be published by Raven Books in October 2018 with a standout marketing and publicity campaign.
Editorial director Alison Hennessey said: "I couldn’t be happier to have signed up two new books from Laura; she is an extremely talented writer with a gift for creating utterly creepy, compelling books that linger long in the mind. Readers are in for such a treat."
Purcell said: "I'm delighted to continue my relationship with the passionate and talented team at Raven Books. It's an exciting imprint that I'm proud to be part of. Hopefully readers will be chilled by these new unsettling, Gothic tales inspired by real antiques."
Purcell is a former bookseller, and lives in Colchester with her husband.