THE SOMNAMBULIST

Fiction (Literary Fiction)

Orion - May 5, 2011

 

'A gutsy page-turning novel with a delightful heroine...larger than life Dickensian characters and generous supply of plot twists and turns. A thumping good read.' -- Sally Zigmond, Historical Novels Review

'Some secrets are better kept buried, some claims left unrecognised.'
A dramatic Victorian mystery set in the music halls and docks of East London, and an isolated Herefordshire country house. Dealing with themes of loss and stolen lives, of racial and religious bigotry, Essie Fox weaves a darkly compelling and sensual story.

Phoebe Turner grows up believing that her mother is the widowed Maud, who marches with the Hallelujah Army and campaigns for all theatres and bars to be closed. They share a home with Cissy, Phoebe's beautiful unmarried aunt, who sings on the stage, who Phoebe adores, and whose past contains many secrets - not least that Phoebe is her daughter.

When Cissy dies of an overdose, Phoebe's world is turned on its head as the web of deceits spun around her start to unravel. First, a glamorous Jewish businessman appears at Cissy's funeral. Unknown to Phoebe he is her father - the father who longs to tell the truth, and who is continually tortured to see his dead lover in Phoebe's face.  Long despised by Maud for being a Jew and for luring Cissy onto the stage, he now steals Phoebe away from her, hiring the girl as a companion for his estranged, reclusive wife, Lydia, a laudanum addict haunted by grief and regrets. As even darker secrets emerge, will Phoebe also be destroyed by guilt and the ghosts that refuse to die? Or, will she rise above her fate and the sins committed in ignorance?