The new Victorian chiller from the author of Radio 2 Book Club pick, The Silent Companions sees a teenage seamstress convinced she can control people’s fates through the clothes she makes for them…

Dorothea and Ruth. Ruth and Dorothea.

Prison visitor and prisoner. Powerful and powerless.

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.

When Dorothea is asked to visit Ruth as part of her charitable works, she could not be more delighted. Her first encounter with a murderer will provide the perfect opportunity to explore Dorothea’s fascination with phrenology, and test her theories that the shape of a person’s skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes.
But the story Ruth has to tell – of bitterness and betrayal, of death and destruction – will shake Dorothea’s belief in rationality, and the power of redemption.

Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?