The Shape of Darkness

Purcell’s latest (after The House of Whispers), set in Bath in the 1800s, focuses on the tragic luck of silhouette artist Agnes Darken, whose clients begin to die after sitting for her portraits. Eager to find the killer, and save her meager stream of income, Agnes requests the help of an 11-year-old medium named Pearl and her half-sister Myrtle, a mesmerist. The sisters initially embrace Agnes’s request for help, as they barter for assistance with their ailing father’s health needs from Agnes’s brother-in-law Simon, a doctor. After Simon’s house call reveals concerns about the household, Agnes and Pearl meet in secret to try and advance the case. As more victims appear, and Agnes’s nephew Cedric is kidnapped, she begins to wonder if she is, somehow, foretelling these murders. Has her own fragile health opened a gateway to the beyond? The appearance of her former fiancé complicates matters even further, forcing Agnes to decide whom she can save, and how.