The Shadow Key

On an isolated estate in late-eighteenth-century rural Wales,a young English doctor uncovers dangerous secrets that may threaten his own life in this spellbinding Gothic tale from the bestselling author of Pandora. Dismissed from his post at a prestigious London hospitalDr. Henry Talbot has little choice but to accept a mysterious offer of employment as a private physician from an inscrutable lord of a rural manor in Wales. Arriving at Plas HelygLord Julian’s isolated estateHenry can’t speak the language and finds himself treated with hostile suspicion by superstitious villagerswhose beliefs in myths and magic he’s inclined to dismiss. But when he discovers that his predecessor died under peculiarinexplicable circumstanceshis determination to uncover the truth leads him down a path fraught with danger–made all the more perilous by his headstrongreluctant ally LinetteLord Julian’s niece. Linette has lived a lonely life as Plas Helyg’s unconventional mistress: her uncle treats her with disdainher father is long deadand her motherlong plagued by strange spells and believed by everyone around her to be deeply unwellspends most of her time locked away in her rooms. Fiercely self-reliantLinette refuses to wear women’s clotheshas no interest in marriageand takes an interest in the welfare of the men working in Lord Julian’s minesagainst his wishes. Linette has always suspected something is not quite right in the villagebut it is only through Henry’s dogged investigations that the dark truth about those closest to her will come to light–a truth that will bind hers and Henry’s destinies together forever in ways neither thought possible.