The Somnambulist Book

London 1881. Phoebe Turner lives in the shadow of her widowed mother 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 at Wilton's Music Hall. Phoebe loves the theatre and sneaks out to watch her aunt singing. When Cissy dies of an overdose Phoebe's world is shattered and a web of deceit spun around her begins to unravel. First a handsome Jewish businessman appears at Cissy's funeral. 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 grieving reclusive wife Lydia a laudanum addict. Spirited away to his Herefordshire mansion Phoebe finds herself haunted by Lydia and her strange sleepwalking. She is troubled by dreams of fresh blood in the snow and soon even darker secrets emerge...This captivating debut simmers with gothic tension as Essie Fox weaves a glorious Victorian ghost story.Read More