The House of Velvet and Glass
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Katherine Howe, New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane returns with her dazzling new historical novel, The House of Velvet and Glass, set against the backdrop of the sinking of the Titanic.
1915, and the ghosts of the dead haunt a wealthy Boston family...
Sybil Allston is devastated by the recent deaths of her mother and sister aboard the Titanic. Hoping to heal her wounded heart, she seeks solace in the parlour of a medium who promises to contact her lost loved ones.
But Sybil finds herself drawn into a strange new world where she can never be sure that what she sees or hears is real. In fear and desperation she turns to psychology professor Benton Jones - despite the unspoken tensions of their shared past...
From the opium dens of Boston's Chinatown to the upscale salons of high society , Sybil and Benton are drawn into a world of occult magic, of truth and lies, and into a race to understand Sybil's own apparent talent for scrying before it is too late.
Katherine Howe's The House of Velvet and Glass is a harrowing story of darkness and danger vanquished by the redemptive power of love.
Praise for Katherine Howe:
'Spellbinding... A terrific story' Daily Express
'A transfixing tale of black magic, hauntings and real-life tricks that will keep you up all night' Glamour
'A brilliant take on the 17th Century Salem witch trials' Mirror
Katherine Howe's family has lived in the area around Salem Massachusetts for generations dating back to the 1620s. She is a descendant of two accused Salem witches - Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth Howe. Katherine is a PhD candidate at Boston University. She lived in Massachusetts and New York with her husband. The House of Velvet and Glass is her second novel to be published by Penguin.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The sinking of the Titanic ripples through the lives of a socially prominent Boston family in an impressive historical tale from Howe (The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane). Three years after the disaster claimed her mother and sister, Sibyl Allston finds solace in the s ances of the medium Mrs. Dee while her brother, Harley, is expelled from Harvard and returns home in the company of the less-than-respectable Dovie Whistler, an actress. Re-entering the family's life is Benton Derby, a young Harvard professor whose aborted courtship of Sibyl years before has left her doomed to the life of a spinster and family caretaker. Moving through time from 1915 back to Sibyl's father's past as a young sailor in Shanghai half a century before and to the last hours of the Titanic itself, Howe's story of the growing attraction between Sibyl and Benton in the shadow of grief and loss merges gracefully into a compelling exploration of spiritualism and free will. An engaging story of love, destiny, and sacrifice in the growing shadow of WWI, with the unexpected touch of fantasy.
