All Her Beautiful Deaths
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Verve Books
Published:1st Sep '26
Should be back in stock very soon
London, 1865. Desperate for work, Minnie takes employment as a maid for the wealthy Culpepper twins. The siblings lead a strange and unconventional life: Edmund operates a laboratory from the house while Edith experiments with morbid photography. When Minnie stumbles upon Edith photographing a deceased girl and swan, she is horrified; but with a sick sister to provide for and nowhere else to go, Minnie must stay and unravel the mysteries of Culpepper House before she becomes Edith's next victim.
London, present day. Grieving artist Hadley is consumed by an album of Victorian death photography, including the exquisite image of a deceased young girl with a swan. When this photograph is involved in an art world scandal, Hadley is given the opportunity to create an installation surrounding the image. But the enigmatic Kit Culpepper, of the Culpepper Trust, has other plans. He offers Hadley an eye-watering sum of money to sell him the album and never speak of its contents again. As Hadley digs deeper into the album's truths, she begins to suspect Kit Culpepper is guarding a deathly secret... and she's not entirely sure how far he'll go to keep it.
Death photography, in which the recently deceased were posed before a camera, today seems a peculiarly macabre Victorian practice. In this dual-time narrative, Rushby uses it as a means to explore grief, loss and the intertwining of past and present... Rushby skilfully brings her two narratives together as her novel progresses * Times *
From the glamour and fog of 1860s London to the cut-throat Sydney art scene of the 2020s, All Her Beautiful Deaths is a seductive modern Gothic novel that illuminates a long history of stifled womenâ??s voices... Rushby has a keen eye for narrative structure and building a foreboding atmosphere. This latest offering, both a compelling mystery and an examination of the endless fractals of grief, is Rushby at her best: sharp as a knife and eerie as the quiet that follows * Readings *
A deliciously gothic dual-time read that I couldn't put down. Enter Edith Culpepper's world and be prepared to be taken on an unexpected journey. Twists aplenty and a fascinating insight into the Victorian practice of death photography. Utterly engaging read -- Jenni Keer, author of The Ravenswood Witch
Deliciously macabre and deeply felt, All Her Beautiful Deaths is an enthralling tale of grief, art, love and death -- Christine Wells, author of The Lost Perfumes of Paris
Perfect winter entertainment, a mix of the Gothic, fantasy and romance * Good Reading Magazine *
ISBN: 9780857309280
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
416 pages