Listeners join Jane in postwar England as she marries local doctor Augustine Lawrence. Her goal is to continue to lead an independent life under the guise of being a respectable married woman. Things get complicated, however, when she starts to fall in love with her husband and learns his darkest, most terrifying, secrets. Narrator Mandy Weston’s cool narration is the perfect match to this tale, making the twists and turns in the plot especially surprising. Weston’s pacing helps to build the tension, and her strong characterizations help differentiate the cast of strange characters. This tale mixes gothic horror, ghosts, and a love story to create a potent listen. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

★ 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.)

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

Listeners join Jane in postwar England as she marries local doctor Augustine Lawrence. Her goal is to continue to lead an independent life under the guise of being a respectable married woman. Things get complicated, however, when she starts to fall in love with her husband and learns his darkest, most terrifying, secrets. Narrator Mandy Weston’s cool narration is the perfect match to this tale, making the twists and turns in the plot especially surprising. Weston’s pacing helps to build the tension, and her strong characterizations help differentiate the cast of strange characters. This tale mixes gothic horror, ghosts, and a love story to create a potent listen. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine