Bone China by Laura Purcell
Bone China is the third novel by Laura Purcell that I have read, and I loved them all. Silent Companions, The Corset and now Bone China. All her stories are full of gothic suspense and all feature strong female characters. In Bone China the story is told by two women forty years apart. Louise Pinecroft and her father arrive at Morvoren House on the Cornish coast which sits high above the cliffs. Her father has plans for an experiment to find a cure for consumption which ends in the most tragic way.
Then, many years later, we are introduced to Hester Why who arrives at Morvoren House to take care of Louise who is now almost mute and spends all her time in an eerie room full of bone china. The servants are secretive and talk of fairies and changelings and then Hester starts to hear and see strange things. The rituals carried out by the staff unnerve Hester and being in the grip of an addiction to gin and laudanum she struggles to kept her sanity.
A final dramatic moment ends this story. Laura Purcell is fast becoming the queen of gothic suspense.
Submitted by Deborah
