Imprint
- W&N
- W&N
London, Greater London, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Historical mysteries, Classic horror & ghost stories, Historical fiction
For fans of THE ESSEX SERPENT and THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK - a 'tremendously good' (Observer) story of cops and columnists, wickedness and love, snow and Spiriters in Victorian London.
'The most vivid and compelling portrait of late Victorian London since THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE' Sarah Perry
'Part Wilkie Collins, part Conan Doyle' Guardian
'Has everything you could want in a novel' Stylist
In Victorian London, poor women are vanishing, and rumours abound of a shadowy gang known as the Spiriters.
In the unfamiliar streets of Soho, Gideon Bliss sets out in search of his lost love. From a ledge above Mayfair a seamstress jumps to her death, a mysterious message stitched into her own skin. Nearby, her aristocratic employer makes an abrupt exit from a gala ball, with society columnist Octavia Hillingdon in pursuit.
And on the sullen Kent shore, as the darkness gathers, secrets lie hidden at the house on Vesper Sands.
More books by Paraic O'Donnell
Praise for The House on Vesper Sands
-
Rarely does a writer stop you so fully in your tracks - Sunday Independent on THE MAKER OF SWANS
-
A gloriously unorthodox confection, part Wilkie Collins, part Conan Doyle, with a generous handful of police procedural and a splash of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm. Both disquietingly eerie and impossible to read without laughing out loud ... A cracking good read. - Guardian
-
Like George Eliot, Paraic O'Donnell takes the bombastic and the sincere and throws them together for comic contrast; like Dickens, he does it in deliciously dark Victorian style. The House on Vesper Sands is an eerie, raucous novel, packed with pathos and wit. Read it!
-
The prose in O'Donnell's first novel is glorious, combining an ear for deep cadences of language with a phenomenal acuity of vision ... O'Donnell is clearly a major talent - GUARDIAN on THE MAKER OF SWANS
-
Truly bewitching - David Mitchell on THE MAKER OF SWANS
-
A page-turner in the very best sense of the term ... a deeply pleasurable gothic fantasy - Financial Times on THE MAKER OF SWANS
-
Lavishly entertaining, strange and captivating - INDEPENDENT on THE MAKER OF SWANS
-
Enthralling ... a literary feast - Stylist on THE MAKER OF SWANS
Paraic O'Donnell
Paraic O'Donnell is a writer of fiction, poetry and criticism. His first novel, THE MAKER OF SWANS, was named the Amazon Rising Stars Debut of the Month for February 2016 and was shortlisted for the Bord GA is Energy Irish Book Awards in the Newcomer of the Year category. His most recent novel, The House on Vesper Sands, was a Guardian and Observer book of the year for 2018. He lives in Wicklow, Ireland with his wife and two children.
http://paraicodonnell.com | @paraicodonnell
Find a book you’ll love, get our Word Up newsletter
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
.png?auto=compress&w=150&h=60&fit=crop&fm=jpg)
Hachette Australia acknowledges and pays our respects to the past, present and future Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our head office is located on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
