‘Gripping and moving’ NINA STIBBE
‘A masterpiece’ SATHNAM SANGHERA
‘Creepy and compulsive, yet deeply touching’ SABINE DURRANT
‘I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t love it’ CHARLOTTE MENDELSON
Camden, 1890. London is a city of gaslight, gossip and grisly headlines.
Hannah Teale is a bright young woman, newly engaged to Cosmo, a budding Fleet Street reporter. Her interest in journalism is largely confined to the advice and short stories in her beloved Girl’s Own Paper, but when news breaks of a local woman arrested for a brutal double murder – a woman named Mary Pearcey – Hannah is struck by a chilling realisation. She’s seen that face before.
As the streets of Camden fill with tabloid journalists jostling for a scoop and gawpers hungry for details, Hannah becomes convinced that her encounter with Mrs Pearcey holds the key to the story behind the headlines. In the guise of preparing for her wedding, Hannah embarks on her own investigation. Startling revelations bring her closer to the real Mary Pearcey – but the deeper she digs, the more the neat edges of her own world begin to fray.
With a trial in full swing, what began as a morbid fascination now feels urgent and personal. The woman bound for the gallows may not be as guilty as the press have branded her – but can Hannah uncover the truth before it’s too late? And even if she does, will anyone believe her?
Riveting and immersive, Mrs Pearcey is a powerful novel inspired by a true crime that scandalised Victorian society and a moving exploration of the secrets we keep and the stories we tell.
‘A masterpiece’ SATHNAM SANGHERA
‘Creepy and compulsive, yet deeply touching’ SABINE DURRANT
‘I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t love it’ CHARLOTTE MENDELSON
Camden, 1890. London is a city of gaslight, gossip and grisly headlines.
Hannah Teale is a bright young woman, newly engaged to Cosmo, a budding Fleet Street reporter. Her interest in journalism is largely confined to the advice and short stories in her beloved Girl’s Own Paper, but when news breaks of a local woman arrested for a brutal double murder – a woman named Mary Pearcey – Hannah is struck by a chilling realisation. She’s seen that face before.
As the streets of Camden fill with tabloid journalists jostling for a scoop and gawpers hungry for details, Hannah becomes convinced that her encounter with Mrs Pearcey holds the key to the story behind the headlines. In the guise of preparing for her wedding, Hannah embarks on her own investigation. Startling revelations bring her closer to the real Mary Pearcey – but the deeper she digs, the more the neat edges of her own world begin to fray.
With a trial in full swing, what began as a morbid fascination now feels urgent and personal. The woman bound for the gallows may not be as guilty as the press have branded her – but can Hannah uncover the truth before it’s too late? And even if she does, will anyone believe her?
Riveting and immersive, Mrs Pearcey is a powerful novel inspired by a true crime that scandalised Victorian society and a moving exploration of the secrets we keep and the stories we tell.
Reviews
I have loved all Lottie Moggach's novels since her debut . . . I read Mrs Pearcey in two days. The plot is gripping and based on a true story . . . Lottie does a very clever thing, which is render Victorian London incredibly vividly while somehow never veering into pastiche. You can feel the streets of this bit of Camden (and Hampstead and Kentish Town), and the people and the clothes and the various milieus and every last domestic detail, but the way the story is told feels like a breath of fresh air. I can't recommend the book enough. It's about more than murders, obviously - it's also about a young woman unexpectedly deviating from what the period and its social norms expect of her
An intriguing novel . . . The double tension in the plot - did Mrs Pearcey really do it and will Hannah's increasing maturity and confidence stop her from marrying Cosmo? - works well
Both a painstaking deep dive into the lurid currents of the Victorian era where, briefly, even Jack the Ripper is evoked, Mrs Pearcey is also an empathetic exploration of the female condition, solidarity and to some extent empowerment, but also a fascinating and gripping low key whydunit thriller
Mrs Pearcey by Lottie Moggach is new-ish and v v enjoyable. It's a gripping yarn about a Victorian murder . . . I'm a sucker for all things Victorian, and as with Sarah Walters books set during the same period, you're really there - hearing and seeing and smelling the stinking Victorian streets
I inhaled Mrs Pearcey. What an incredible book. Gripping and creepy and compulsive, yet deeply touching . . . brilliant
Gripping, sophisticated, modern, with an enviable lightness of touch: this is a fantastic novel. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't love it
This is a perfect novel - vivid, compelling characters caught up in a riveting mystery, at a historical moment that says so much about our own. Moggach wears her deep knowledge of Victorian London lightly, and the prose exudes warmth and humour. A masterpiece
Vivid, gripping and moving, Mrs Pearcey provides the thrill of true crime and a comment on our appetite for that genre
The murderess Mary Pearcey has been brought back from the dead by Lottie Moggach in an utterly engrossing novel. Moggach writes with enormous heart and a detective's attention to detail regarding the court case and the Victorian press's bloodcurdling appetite for the gruesome. Read it and the streets of London will transform before your eyes
A thoughtful, nuanced novel that is both thoroughly modern and perfectly pitched within its timeframe. Mrs Pearcey is a great read - elegantly written true crime that delves with deftness into the sensationalism of its own genre.
Rich, beautifully written, unsettling and, above all, real . . . A triumphant addition to the growing collection of novels that explore and enhance our understanding of real crimes
An excellent novel - so beautifully written, so cleverly plotted, so atmospheric. I loved being transported to nineteenth century London and into the lives of such vivid and convincing characters
Mrs Pearcey is so gripping and vividly imagined I couldn't bear to leave the world Lottie Moggach created. A brilliant book that will stay with me a long time
Gripping and propulsive and perfectly handled. I loved the details of nineteenth-century London . . . Engaging, vivid and intriguing
A page-turning novel with a rich cast of believable characters that highlights the nineteenth-century origins of our obsession with true crime
A celebrated case in its day, coming soon after the Ripper murders, is now revived in Moggach's vivid, immersive imagination . . . Thoroughly engaging . . . Sophisticated and suspenseful, Moggach's novel goes beyond the usual historical fiction
I admire an author who writes in a different vein with each book and here Lottie Moggach turns to true crime fiction . . . gripping
If you love historical fiction that feels fresh and new, this tale delivers . . . compelling
Based on a real-life crime that scandalised society, Moggach's creepily atmospheric and immersive novel cleverly transports you back to scandal-hungry Victorian times. A true gem
Compulsive . . . Moggach makes much of the 1890s setting, with bustling London streets and nosy passersby, all enthralled by the speculation and scurrilous detail peddled by newspaper hawkers on every corner