The Death of Jane Lawrence

by Caitlin Starling

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

An uncanny, beguiling and captivating page-turner. So much atmosphere you will be lost in the night's fog and rub your eyes and hope it's not real ... or that it is real. We still haven't figured out which is less scary.

***AN INSTANT BESTSELLER!***
Best Books of 2021 · NPR
ALA/The Reading List Best Horror 2021 Pick
Longlisted for the Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement in a Novel, 2021

From the Bram Stoker-nominated author of The Luminous Dead comes a gothic fantasy horror—The Death of Jane Lawrence.

"A jewel box of a Gothic novel." —New York Times Book Review

“Delicious.... By the time the book reached that point of no return, I was so invested that I would have followed Jane into the very depths of hell.” —NPR.org

“Intense and amazing! It’s like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell meets Mexican Gothic meets Crimson Peak.” —BookRiot

Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town.

Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Caitlin Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250272591
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/05/2021
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	154,629
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Caitlin Starling writes horror-tinged speculative fiction of all flavors. Her first novel, The Luminous Dead, won the LOHF Best Debut Award and was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and Locus Awards. She is also the author of the gothic horror tales Yellow Jessamine and The Death of Jane Lawrence, as well as a novella in the Vampire: The Masquerade audio collection, Walk Among Us. Her nonfiction has appeared in Nightmare and Uncanny. Starling also works in narrative design, and has been paid to invent body parts. She’s always on the lookout for new ways to inflict insomnia.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/03/2021

Starling (The Luminous Dead) captivates and horrifies by turn in this intricately plotted, deliciously bonkers secondary world gothic fantasy. Mathematical, methodical Jane Shoringfield, not wishing to be a burden on her guardians when they move to the capital of Great Bretlain or to live in the still shell-scarred city where her parents died during a recent war, proposes a marriage of convenience to Augustine Lawrence, the only doctor in her small town of Larrenton. Lawrence agrees on one condition: Jane is never to spend the night at his ancestral home, Lindridge Hall. But when a mudslide destroys her carriage, Jane is forced to break this promise, staying overnight at Lindridge Hall and confronting the secrets that haunt her new husband. The novel spirals out into a tale of creeping terror, both psychological supernatural, before a masterful third-act twist. Those with low tolerance for gore should be warned there are multiple graphic bloodlettings and surgeries, including one while the patient is still conscious. Gothic purists may initially balk at the secondary world setting, as it’s somewhat at odds with the genre’s emphasis on how women are imprisoned by real-world patriarchal structures, but Starling’s magic system is so spookily and fully realized, and the final twist so brilliantly turns the novel on its head, that even the most skeptical will be won over. This proves impossible to put down. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

A delicious Gothic romance.... It has to walk the line between romance and horror and not flinch away from either. The Death of Jane Lawrence is up to this task…. By the time the book reached that point of no return, I was so invested that I would have followed Jane into the very depths of hell.” —NPR.org

“Starling is one of the new leading voices in horror.” —Locus Magazine

“Inspired by Crimson Peak, the horror in this gothic set in an alternate postwar England subtly increases as the novel progresses, unease seeping into the pages.” —Buzzfeed

“Don’t read this one alone at night; Caitlin Starling has done it again. Unsettling, atmospheric, and downright brutal at times, The Death of Jane Lawrence will continue to haunt you long after you leave Lindridge Hall…if the house lets you leave, that is.” —Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart

“With The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling establishes herself as a queen of gothic horror. I absolutely loved this smart, compelling book about the weight and consequence of love, and how far we are willing to go in its service.” —Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians

“With labyrinthine twists and characters to fall for, Starling’s gothic horror is a tale that haunts you even after you’re done. The Death of Jane Lawrence is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell with sharp teeth and a Crimson Peak you’re scared to look in the eye.” —Linden A. Lewis, author of The First Sister

“A sublime Gothic romance with bonesaw prose and a spreading stain of cosmic horror.” —Seth Dickinson, author of The Traitor Baru Cormorant

“Elegantly atmospheric and grotesquely visceral, The Death of Jane Lawrence both haunts and tears open the ghost to show the gory insides. I loved every page!” —C.A. Higgins, author of Lightless

“A keen, visceral study in dread, The Death of Jane Lawrence is a harrowing plunge into the beating heart of hope and madness. The occult magic of Lindridge Hall captured me from the first page, and I never wanted it to let me go. Starling is a master of mind games with a twisted talent for dragging her characters through hell. I will read anything she writes next.” —Kate Dollarhyde, Nebula award-winning game writer

“This blood-soaked book was chilling from beginning to end, with great reveals and an intense romance, plus lots of ghosts, gore, and guts!” —BookRiot

“A torturous book. Horrifying in small, cutting, personal ways, and in the more classic scare-in-a-dark-room way. But there’s an iron rod of panicked strength that runs through the middle of it.” —NPR, Jason Sheehan, on The Luminous Dead

“This claustrophobic, horror-leaning tour de force is highly recommended for fans of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation and Andy Weir’s The Martian." —Publishers Weekly, starred review, on The Luminous Dead

“Starling has written a tightly-focused novel, part psychological thriller, part deep character study.” —Tor.com, Liz Bourke, on The Luminous Dead

From the Publisher

★ 10/15/2021

When Jane Shoringfield proposes marriage to Dr. Augustine Lawrence, she has only a business arrangement in mind. Her guardians are moving away, and she believes that a marriage of convenience is the best way for her to maintain her independence. She offers to use her formidable accounting skills to help run his practice, and he reluctantly agrees to her proposal with one condition: she must spend every night in the apartment over his offices while he stays at his decrepit ancestral home outside of town. She agrees, but on their wedding night, a carriage accident strands her at Lindridge Hall, and she quickly realizes that something is very, very wrong with the house and her new husband. She sets out to learn more about the dark history of Lindridge Hall, drawing on her mathematical acumen and steely resolve to set things right. VERDICT Starling's (The Luminous Dead) gothic horror is an immersive delight that will be adored by fans of alternate histories, the film Crimson Peak, ghost stories, magical experiments gone wrong, and stories about women becoming aware of their own power.

Library Journal