Gentle Things: The Chilling Historical Fiction Novel Full of Secrets and Suspense

‘A tense descent into madness until the final page’
– Lucy Rose, bestselling author of The Lamb

From the acclaimed author of Mere comes a thrilling tale of medicine, marriage and madness set in seventeenth-century London. The plague has passed, the fire has cooled, and Lucy North is in desperate need of a husband . . .

London, 1668. Though the streets hum with promise following the restoration of the crown, Lucy North is trapped. Her father’s recent death has left her mother saddled with debts she cannot pay. Lucy must marry the first man willing to take her without a dowry.

So when she meets Thomas Ashwell, a young and charming apothecary, Lucy quickly identifies an attractive route out. She falls in love easily, and when Thomas proposes she believes her future is finally secured.

But when Lucy falls and injures her head during their wedding party, things start to warp. Confined to her bedroom her dreams refuse to leave her at daybreak, and the voice in her head no longer sounds like her own. As Thomas plies her with tinctures and cures, a creeping fear takes root: Has this marriage saved her? Or will it bring about her end?

‘One of the best things I’ve read in ages’
– Liam Higginson, author of The Hill in the Dark Grove

‘A stunning fever dream of a book . . . one of my favourite books of 2026 so far’
– Cathryn Kemp, author of A Poisoner’s Tale