The Taxidermist's Daughter
A Richard and Judy bestseller
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The enthralling new Sunday Times bestselling gothic novel from the author of THE WINTER GHOSTS, LABYRINTH and THE CITY OF LIES
The clock strikes twelve. Beneath the wind and the remorseless tolling of the bell, no one can hear the scream . . .
1912. A Sussex churchyard. Villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will not survive the coming year are thought to walk. And in the shadows, a woman lies dead.
As the flood waters rise, Connie Gifford is marooned in a decaying house with her increasingly tormented father. He drinks to escape the past, but an accident has robbed her of her most significant childhood memories. Until the disturbance at the church awakens fragments of those vanished years . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macabre atmosphere and an appealing heroine can't save this gothic historical thriller by bestseller Mosse (The Winter Ghosts) from sinking under the weight of its muddled, fantastic plot. Set in 1912 during several sodden spring days in rural West Sussex, the story centers on 22-year-old Constantia "Connie" Gifford the titular character (and a deft taxidermist in her own right) who, despite lingering seizures from the fall that almost killed her a decade earlier, is about the only thing keeping her alcoholic widowed father, a once-renowned avian taxidermist, and their isolated household afloat. But then the discovery of a murdered woman near their property, Blackthorn House, and a series of other disturbing events start to trigger Connie's long-repressed memories of the night she fell, threatening the Giffords' very lives. As Connie and new friend Harry Woolston, a handsome aspiring painter hunting for his missing father, join forces to investigate, some sparks do fly as well as far too plentiful feathers (and guts) for some readers to stomach.
