Fyneshade – A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of 2023 (Hardback)

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On the day she buries her grandmother, Marta is sent away from everything she knows. Cast off by her family and separated from the woman she loves, she accepts a post as governess at Fyneshade, an isolated house standing dark against the Derbyshire hills.

The estate is governed by silence. Servants avert their eyes. The child she is meant to teach seems unreachable. Sir William Pritchard, the master of the house, is nowhere to be found, while his son Vaughan is forbidden to cross the threshold, spoken of in warnings rather than explanations. Marta is drawn to him nonetheless, sensing in his exclusion a familiar injustice.

Fyneshade is a place heavy with secrets, but Marta arrives with secrets of her own. Taught by her grandmother in arts best kept hidden, she is no passive observer of danger. As the house begins to reveal its history of cruelty and bloodshed, Marta prepares to shape her fate rather than submit to it.

Fyneshade is a gothic novel of power, desire, and quiet vengeance, where the most dangerous presence may not be the house itself.