“𝗚𝗼. 𝗚𝗼 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘁-𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰, 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄.”

Have you been sleeping on gothic horror? Well, wake up because spooky season is right around the corner and 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗙 𝗝𝗔𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗪𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 comes out 𝗢𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝟱𝗧𝗛.

Jane is seeking a husband and she’s found the perfect candidate: Dr. Augustine Lawrence. The only problem is that she has to convince him to marry her.

With a proposal like a business arrangement, the deal has been struck. Jane was built for numbers, not intimacy. And she plans to keep it that way. But, Jane doesn’t expect her feelings for Dr. Lawrence to burn red hot on her skin.

Augustine has told Jane that she is never to stay the night at Lindridge Hall. It’s a dilapidated mansion, with secrets seeping from its walls and shadows creeping up on you…with red eyes in the night.

Lining the walls of the study are the many medical curiosities. But they tell of something deeper, something darker… a secret perhaps?

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘:
Gothic horror
Haunted mansions
Victorian surgery
Magic and rituals

Then 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝗢𝗙 𝗝𝗔𝗡𝗘 𝗟𝗔𝗪𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 might be a book that you need in your life.

I had to reread parts towards the end because it made my head spin. It left me feeling creeped out and uneasy. But I thoroughly enjoyed it!

4 ⭐️

My inability to finish this one may stem from my failure to understand that a "dark-mirror version of post-war England" (in the synopsis) actually means an alternative-history (but also not, because actually it seems to be magic/fantasy, with poorly considered alternative names - "Great Breltain" - just overlaid real placenames?). Had this even not been the case, I'm still not entire I would've wanted to continue reading because I didn't particularly enjoy the actual writing itself. I can absolutely see that it's likely engaging for another sort of reader but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. I'm not posting outside of Netgallety because I didn't read far enough to justify a negative public review.

Jane Shoringfield selects a husband as she would a business partner, and when Dr. Augustine Lawrence accepts her proposal things look settled to their mutual agreement. She will be his accountant and medical assistant, living in rooms above his small town office, and he will continue living in his family home, the formidable Lindridge Hall where the staff leaves at sundown, and no one sleeps but Augustine. The wedding celebration, however, interrupts the arrangement, and Jane sleeps over in the mansion, finding things her mathematical mind cannot explain. And her relationship with Dr. Lawrence might not be as platonic as anticipated. All of the Gothic elements one might hope for--creepy house in an alternative post WWI environment, good ancillary characters, life threatening situations, a little romance, plus ghosts that are far from benign. Fine narration from Mandy Weston keeps the story moving right along, and there are no lulls in the action. An excellent listen.

The Death of Jane Lawrence was such a great book! I had no idea what I was in for and I was blown away. The author is a master at sensory writing and really has you feeling the cold slabs and smelling the blood. Amazing writing. Yes, there is a lot of blood so prepare accordingly. The story was really solid and only got a tad confusing ear the end, Speaking of which, I loved the ending. This is a perfect book for a stormy fall night. Hoping to read a whole lot more from this author.

This is gothic horror done correctly. The haunted atmosphere, the characters with frightening secrets, and the slow, but steady pace are all standouts. My favourite part though is Jane Lawrence herself, a wonderfully written character - I had to keep reading, simply because I needed to know what happens to her.
Highly recommended for these chilly, fall nights that are fast approaching.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC to read and review. All opinions are my own.

This was a gothic horror unlike one I’ve read for a long time, and I was appreciative for it, coming into spooky season.
The story follows our heroine, Jane, as she tries to extricate herself from a situation in which she personally has put herself. This book encompasses all of the most fall, autumn, halloweeny, and horror-y of topics you could imagine. Witchcraft, ghosts, hauntings, possessions.
The book was very well-written and allowed me to escape from the horror that we see outside into a completely different time period, and different world. You see, the world in this tale is close enough to ours to not be worrisome, but different enough to allow you to not be too scared. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the Halloween season, gothic horror, or just a really good book that will allow you to transport yourself somewhere completely different, and maybe get a little scare while you are at it.

As I round the bend into Spooky Season, I am glad that I am slowly building my repertoire of horror recommendations. While it didn’t topple The Route of Ice and Salt as my favourite horror novel, The Death of Jane Lawrence might have broke even with it. I was genuinely impressed and creeped out.
This novel has a fascinating preoccupation with the Victorian obsession with the occult. This allows it the slasher worthy descriptions of blood and gore, but also provides a surreal psychological element (think ouroboros) to go alongside the visceral horror. Basically it is a ghost story, a medical body horror, a cautionary tale, and a psychological thriller all rolled into one, and I was both grossed out and riveted through most of it—and don’t get me started on the ending! If I wasn’t worried about spoilers I could talk in circles about the retrospect scene for hours.
Normally I don’t touch much on trigger warnings. However, I do feel the need to mention that there is a non-MC ectopic pregnancy, which might be an issue for someone affected by miscarriages or other fertility related issues.
That PSA aside, I wholly recommend adding The Death of Jane Lawrence to your October TBR. It is the perfect read for a haunted Halloween night… or any time you feel the need for a tingle down your spine.

This was a truly creepy chiller! It's perfect for the season. I am not a historical fiction reader, but I truly enjoyed this horror set in a gothic Victorian past. There was a lot of body horror which I did not expect from the cover -- I happen to enjoy this but will definitely share that caveat with my patrons when I recommend it. The twists and turns were fantastical and gory and just very original and mindbending. Thank you very much for the opportunity to enjoy this unique read.

I enjoyed the medical and science aspects of the book but I started to get lost after the beginning. The plot just wasn't doing it for me. It was very atmospheric and had a gothic feel to it, but I also need an engaging and entertaining plot that goes in one direction. I think fans of House of Leaves or Shirley Jackson will enjoy this one, but those weren't my favorites either.

This book is down to its core a work of true gothic horror, keeping its promises of the grotesque from its opening words and beyond. As such, I wanted to love it. However, as I neared the end, I found the pacing slogged, spending too much time unraveling the unique magic system of this world—the post Great War country of “Great Breltain.”

Jane herself was a refreshing heroine, smart and logical to her core with a particular fascination with mathematics. Whereas I applaud the author’s attempts to use mathematics and philosophy to explain her world’s magic system, I often found myself bored and taken out of the story by such long exposition—even though it was given within dialogue.

Overall, I did not hate this book. I think it will stand well on the shelf alongside MEXICAN GOTHIC and other such novels, and if you have a deep-rooted love for strong and smart female characters and Poe-style gothic romance, I think this exactly the book that will get you in the mood for Halloween. If you find yourself skipping over some of the more laborious details of the “spells,” well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Death of Jane Lawrence started out with my full attention: a pragmatic young woman with a penchant for numbers, living in a post-war world that can only be described as an alternative Britain, makes a list of ten bachelors and chooses the quirky, twitchy Dr. Augustine Lawrence to be her husband. I was fascinated a woman in this earlier time period, when women had to marry or become pitied spinsters, would propose a "business" arrangement to a total stranger, and have it accepted. Despite Augustine's clear apprehension, nay, fear of marrying anyone, he agrees to marry Jane. But their arrangement comes with one unbreakable rule: he is to live at his family home, Lindridge Hall, and she cannot stay beyond sunset. I was captured.

Of course the rule is broken their wedding night and Jane finds herself living in a haunted house with a possibly unsound but definitely secretive stranger. As they both feel a mutual attraction, there is an undertone of suspicion during the first few days of their "business" arrangement. While Jane is the more practical of the two-even using mathematical theorems to analyze all the weird occurrences in her new home-Augustine is reserved and a mystery. Lindridge Hall, obviously once an elegant country manor, is now decrepit and falling apart. Its gardens are overgrown, most of the rooms are cold and dusty, the windows broken, and furniture dilapidated; only Augustine's study with its creepy skulls and embalmed body parts is intact.

This was a fascinating ghost story until Augustine's former medical colleagues make a surprise visit. While they are able to fill in some of the blanks concerning Augustine, their presence tosses a metaphysical, magical element to the mystery. Their belief in the supernatural, complete with spells and the black arts, could have added a wicked underlying context to the story; instead I found it confusing, and overwrought. When Jane finds she must perform a spell that will take seven days to complete, I inwardly groaned by day two--it was a looong spell.

Jane's descent into madness is exhausting, her narrative unreliable. This could have been an engrossing part of the book but instead it was like the seven-day spell: really, really long. I found myself skipping full paragraphs and like some other readers have noted, I didn't miss anything. Whenever Jane found herself confronted by the ghostly residents of Lindridge Hall or discovering more secrets in Augustine's past, I was fascinated. The scenes involving the occult could have been equally fascinating and a great element to the story if they weren't so overanalyzed.

Now, the ending that had many readers' knickers in a twist; I agree with them. There is a chapter, confusing and prolonged as it was, that should have been the end of the story. I should not ever second-guess a writer but the potential for a bang on ending was there.

It was a good read but not one that satisfied.

(My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

The Death of Jane Lawrence is the embodiment of gothic horror, but on steroids!! It has the traditional arranged marriage between unsuspecting woman and mysterious but attractive man. Loved that this time the woman, Jane, is a brilliant minded woman with an affinity for numbers, and the man, Augustine, is a renown surgeon working in a small town. There is the family home that is in disrepair that Augustine doesn’t want Jane to be at, for mysterious untold reasons. What adds to the story, is the added elements of spiritualism and the post-war world of fictional countries. I loved that the deeper we got into the story the more the writing made you think and question the reality, all while Jane is questioning her own reality. It gets to a point where I felt transcended to another spiritual plane and felt like we’d time warped to some other dimension. This was a brilliantly written novel, with the perfect amount of spookiness.

This book was an awesome prospect and it started out just riveting. A woman with a need to find a husband, she mathematically placed a certain doctor as the perfect husband. She could do his books and they could be mutually beneficial to each other, no strings. No intimacy. Until things start to unravel and she is thrust into a gothic mystery that bends the mind and alters reality.

The first third of the book was spot on, but as Jane declines into a world of magic and half-truths, I felt unclear about exactly what was going on to the point where I had to put the book down for a couple of days. There is definitely a feeling of insanity and frankly, it made me dizzy.

The end has an interesting wrap-up and I am still thinking about it.

I wanted to give this page-turner a 5 star rating, but the miasma of crazy head games in the middle was a bit too much. I never did completely understand the alternate reality that was going on, but that's fine. If it had a little less repetition of the same events, that would have also tightened the work.

That said, I look forward to the next book by this author and will have to check out her other works. Great creepiness abounding and so much potential!

Three Stars
DNF @ 60%


I don’t read much fiction, but occasionally enjoy gothic horror- especially when it takes place in England. This book had a promising start, but at about the halfway mark went off the rails for me. I no longer have the will to invest the time to finish this.

For a brief synopsis, this takes place in a fictional place called Great Breltain. Jane has lived with the Cunninghams most of her life, but now that they are moving away because of her “father’s” new judgeship, she is looking to marry. It sounds like this takes place in Victorian times (or earlier), where a woman needs to be attached to a man in society. So she proposes a marriage/business arrangement to young Dr. Augustine Lawrence. She already has performed accountant services for her father, so hopes to lend these talents to the doctor’s practice. Dr. Lawrence, while young and good-looking, has an air of melancholy and mystery.

As a trial run of sorts, Jane is summoned to his surgery where a very chaotic scene of a man who has seemingly stabbed himself needs emergency treatment. It was a riveting account where Jane rose to the occasion assisting Dr. Lawrence in his life-saving ministrations. The immediate aftermath was a high for both, but the adrenaline soon unraveled with fear and doom. One of the terms agreed upon was that only Dr. Lawrence would stay/sleep at his family’s longtime residence, Lindridge Hall. Jane would remain at the home which housed the surgery. But of course, events unfold which land Jane at Lindridge Hall, where ghosts, blood, scorcery and a basement crypt make it a place to stay far away from!

As I alluded to before, I was immediately drawn into this macabre tale, but just beyond the halfway point it became a muddled mess to read that made little sense. I felt tossed about in a violent rainstorm where my horse carriage turned over in the mud. I just don’t have the fortitude or desire to go on, so I rate this 3 Stars at the 60% mark.

Thank you to to the publisher St. Martin’s Press for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

"Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town.

Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Caitlin Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished."

Mention Crimson Peak and Rebecca and I'm in. Another reviewer mentioned Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and I am SO IN!

This was very atmospheric, very gothic, very spooky. The reader is in Jane's head, which is disorienting and tense in a great way.

The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling, is an exceptional book!

Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town.

Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.

Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Caitlin Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished.

The Death of Jane Lawrence is an unusual tale based in an alternate reality very similar to our own. The novel opens with Jane devising a plan to secure a husband by proposing marriage to the new town doctor Augustine Lawrence. Dr. Lawrence agrees to Jane’s proposal on the condition that she always live at the surgery in town and never stay past sunset at his family estate, Lindridge Hall, outside of town. Naturally, once the two are married Jane ends up spending the night at Lindridge Hall and is immediately unsettled by the vibe of this crumbling and ominous estate. Jane soon finds herself bearing the tremendous burden of not only unraveling the family secrets Augustine and his family home hold, but trying to right past wrongs and save her husband from a perilous end.

The plot got a little out there for my reading taste, but it could be just the thing if you’re looking for a great spooky read for October. Additionally, the book might have been even more gripping were it not so lengthy and drawn out at times. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and is certainly a unique story. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review. Look for this title from your favorite bookseller or library on October 5, 2021.

I have such conflicting emotions about this book! It's such an eerie, atmospheric, beautifully written gothic horror story. But it's also utterly confusing.

Jane Shoringfield is a practical woman and she approaches Dr. Augustine Lawrence with a business proposition: they'll marry--in legal name only--so that she can remain independent and do meaningful accountancy work for him.

He agrees, but under the condition that she never spend the night with him at his house, Lindridge Hall. But on their very wedding night, an accident forces Jane there and instead of finding her new husband, she meets a paranoid man living in terror and she discovers that there is something horrifically wrong with Lindridge Hall.

I really did enjoy this book. Author Caitlin Starling creates a world that's so vivid, you're drawn into it completely and I love her writing style. But I'm left with some questions, because I didn't really understand this existential world. The entire plot hinges on Jane and Augustine's marriage, but why did she need to get married in the first place? It seems like this is a world that accepts professional women--Jane is an accountant and several are doctors. It would make sense that Jane could...just get hired by Dr. Lawrence to balance his books without becoming his wife? And with the fervor that Augustine demands Jane stay at Lindridge Hall, he conveniently abandons that requirement immediately. I'm also somewhat confused by the magic system itself. It sort of just exists and appears without any explanation or justification. But I'm going to accept that this is simply a mind-bending novel that you just have to go with.

Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read this advance copy in exchange for a review.

I’m so confused about how to start this review. I started out really liking this book, the gothic horror vibes with a mix of Jane Eyre. But around the halfway-ish point my brain started to feel as jumbled as Jane was and not in a good way.

I enjoyed Jane being a character that just grabbed life by the horns and didn’t let others dictate how she was doing to live her life but the whole setting seemed to clash. We have more modern settings mixing with historical so it was hard to get a good grasp of a time period.

The last 30% is where things really started to hurt my head. I think there should have been less of an info dump and an “easier” more logical way for it to have gone. Maybe I’m just not smart enough for this one 😂