Kate Griffin’s Fyneshade is an homage to Victorian gothic, offering readers the familiar tropes of the genre twisted into something darkly devious. When the anti-heroine, Marta, is banished to the wilds of Derbyshire to become a governess at a remote and crumbling mansion, murder ensues.
In most examples of classic ‘governess gothic’ the heroine is a pure-hearted ingenue, but Marta is a practising witch and very far from innocent. It is soon apparent that Fyneshade and its inhabitants have much to fear from a young woman who brings the darkness with her.
Kate Griffin studied English Literature and went on to work as an assistant to an antiques dealer, a journalist for local newspapers and, until recently for The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Her love of all things Victorian is apparent in her Kitty Peck Murder Mystery series published by Faber and Faber. She is the co-author (with Marcia Hutchinson) of the forthcoming historical novel The Blackbirds of St Giles to be published by Simon & Schuster under the pseudonym Lila Cain.
Join Kate as she chats to Lucinda Hawksley on the Goldster Inside Story at 12pm on 2 February.