Not all monsters remain fictional

Percy Shelley's legendary poetry lives on long after his death in 1850s England. But when his son and famed widow, Mary, are approached by a stranger offering to sell rare papers allegedly by Percy, Charles Maddox is called to look at the suspicious texts.

But the case is not as simple as it appears, with Mary's bitter stepsister, Claire Clairmont, also on the scene. As the investigation grows more disturbing, shocking evidence of foul play is discovered, leaving Maddox hunting for an even darker truth

Taking inspiration from Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, Lynn Shepherd turns a literary legend into an otherworldly tale.

Previously called A Treacherous Likeness.

Lynn Shepherd writes 'literary mysteries' - in other words, one part literary fiction to one part mystery, each time inspired either by a classic book or classic literary figures. The greats works that drive her books include Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, Charles Dicken's Bleak House, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula. After studying English at university she decided to combine her two greatest literary loves: classic English novels and a good detective fiction, and hasn't put down her pen since.