Purcell is fast establishing herself as the doyenne of gothic mystery, and this positively oozes uncanny menace … Niftily plotted and deftly researched, it's one to read with the lights blazing and the door bolted

Mail on Sunday

A clever and well-researched novel with a good twist, and it shows the nightmare of life for single women of limited means in the 19th century

Literary Review

With atmospheric séances, a cast of quirky characters and a hint of the supernatural, this will have you guessing to the end

Woman&Home

There's always a satisfying edge to Laura Purcell's writing and The Shape of Darkness is no exception: this is dark, atmospheric storytelling that both satisfies and unsettles

Living Magazine

Dripping with atmosphere with a corkscrew plot, Laura Purcell just gets better and better

Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars and The Foundling

It's her best one yet and that's saying something. A story of a woman haunted in every way possible, I think it's a future gothic classic

Martyn Waites