The Fascination

The Fascination Synopsis

The estranged grandson of a wealthy collector of human curiosities becomes fascinated with teenaged twin sisters, leading them into a web of dark obsessions. A dazzlingly dark gothic novel from the bestselling author of The Somnambulist.

`Makes skilful use of the tropes of Victorian gothic fiction… a story of society' s outsiders seeking acceptance and redemptionn Sunday Times

`An inventive slice of gothic fiction, big-hearted and full of strangenessn The Times

`A dazzling kaleidoscope of darkness and lightn Laura Purcell

`A magical, macabre masterpiecen A.J. West

`Brimming with Victorian wonders!n Sean Lusk

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Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn't grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father's quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ' Captain' .

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother' s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell' s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ' family' of performers, freaks and outcasts.

But it is Theo' s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…

Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London - and darkness and deception that lies beneath…

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`Fascinating and immersiven Anna Mazzola

`It had me spellboundn Louisa Treger

`A wonderful, captivating carnival of a noveln Elizabeth Fremantle

`Essie Fox' s best novel to date - weaves terrors with triumphs, heartache with hopen Culturefly

`A scintillating cabinet of curiositiesn Foreword Reviews

`A cast of characters Dickens would be proud ofn Frances Quinn

`Rich, dark and heady … a glorious gothic carnivaln Kate Griffin

`Magnificent ... a triumphn Dinah Jefferies

`A tender, beautifully written meditation on what it meant in Victorian times to be an outsidern Historical Novel Society

`Darkly gothic, but surprisingly tender ... rendered with such magical and often terrifying authenticity. A marveln Damian Dibben

`Filled with gothic darkness and glorious hopen Liz Fenwick

`Full of horrors and delightsn Bridget Walsh

' An opium trance of a novel, a vivid fantasmagorian Noel O' Reilly

`Deliciously dark, full of twists and surprisesn Liz Hyder

`What a triumph!n Emma Curtis

`Very fine historical fictionn Emma Carroll

`Truly unexpected and originaln Kate Forsyth

`A dizzying potion of a noveln Polly Crosby

`A sumptuous, gothic treatn Caroline Green

`Exceptional storytellingn Nydia Hetherington

`I loved this group of wonderful " others" n Marika Cobbold

`An exquisite noveln Erika Mailman

`Haunting and emotiven Gill Paul