Dangerous - by Essie Fox (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

• "Brooding and brilliant" --A.J. West
• "What could so easily have been a risible premise for a novel becomes, in Fox's expert hands, the starting point for an atmospheric thriller" --Sunday Times
• "As mesmerizing and charismatic as Byron himself can ever have been ... a magnificent gothic tale of scandal, secrets and murder" --Janice Hallett
• "Evokes all the grimy charisma of eighteenth-century Venice ... a mystery as sinuous as the city's alleys and canals. I was enthralled" --Elizabeth Fremantle
• "A dark treat ... splendidly gothic and impressively researched" --Andrew Taylor

Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city.

SCANDAL

But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumors begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer...

MURDER

As events escalate and tensions rise--and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear--Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him...

MYSTERY

Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron's life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself...

MORE PRAISE FOR ESSIE FOX:

• "A plot as labyrinthine as the Venice backstreets, told in dazzling prose" --Erin Kelly
• "Brilliant, daring writing" --Anna Mazzola
• "Expertly weaves fact and fiction" --Anita Frank
• "Sumptuous, entertaining and glorious" --C.S. Green
• "Fox is the queen of darkly glittering gothic fiction ... I devoured it in one sitting" --Louisa Treger
• "Many writers have tried and failed to capture the Byronic quintessence, but the brilliant Essie Fox has succeeded admirably" --Alex Larman
• "Scandalously scintillating" --Kate Griffin
• "Gorgeously clever" --Amanda Craig
• "A ravishing tale of murder, lust and thwarted ambition" --Emma Carroll
• "A deliciously gothic and beautifully written historical thriller" --Frances Quinn
• "Captures the Byronic soul in all its beauty and madness" --Victoria Dowd
• "Deliciously dark" --Paul Burston
• "An engaging historical mystery" --Time & Leisure Magazine
• "Impeccably researched and compellingly told" --Bridget Walsh
• "What a ride! Gripping and atmospheric" --Caroline Lea
• "Fastidiously researched, richly imagined, full of wonderful descriptions of Venice" --Michael Stewart

About the Author

Always an avid reader, Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4's TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Her latest novel, The Fascination is based in Victorian country fairgrounds, the glamour of the London theatres, and an Oxford Street museum full of morbid curiosities.

Essie is also the creator of the popular blog, The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.