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The Last Days of Leda Grey

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The Last Days of Leda Grey

By: Essie Fox
Narrated by: Peter Noble, Rachel Atkins
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About this listen

 A bewitching novel about an enigmatic silent film actress, and the volatile love affair that left her a recluse for over half a century - for fans of Sarah Waters and Tracy Chevalier.

During the oppressive heat wave of 1976 a young journalist, Ed Peters, finds an Edwardian photograph in a junk shop in the seaside town of Brightland. It shows an alluring, dark-haired girl, an actress whose name was Leda Grey.

Enchanted by the image, Ed learns Leda Grey is still living - now a recluse in a decaying cliff-top house she once shared with a man named Charles Beauvois, a director of early silent film. As Beauvois's muse and lover, Leda often starred in scenes where stage magic and trick photography were used to astonishing effect.

But, while playing a cursed Egyptian queen, the fantasies captured on celluloid were echoed in reality, leaving Leda abandoned and alone for more than half a century - until the secrets of her past result in a shocking climax, more haunting than any to be in found in the silent films of Charles Beauvois.

(p) 2016 Orion Publishing Group©2016 Essie Fox Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Celebrity

Critic Reviews

A richly evocative story, brimming with intrigue and suspense
Leda Grey's world is utterly beguiling (Antonia Senior)
Dark, haunting, compelling... equal to DuMaurier's novels - this book held me in its grip. Loved it.
Macabre, transporting, thick with atmosphere and allusion
Darkly sparkling. Very much enjoyed my days in Leda's twilight world. Doubt I'll sleep all that well tonight...
Shades of Sunset Boulevard in this atmospheric chiller
A wonderfully creepy tale. Leda is a triumph
An obvious comparison is with early Sarah Waters. The glee with which Fox approaches her material is infectious. All Victorian life is here. Intriguing
A deliciously eerie affair... A story of obsession, jealousy, mysterious deaths and theatrically supernatural goings-on as very strange truths are tantalisingly revealed
Fox's tale of obsessive love is memorable and unusual
A richly textured, highly coloured and entirely pleasurable read
A fabulous foray into a shadowy Victorian world
I loved this book and recommend it to anyone looking for a delightfully immersive and imaginative spell in the past
Fox's vivid, sensual prose is - fittingly - as seductive as a siren's song, drawing you into a shadowy Victorian world of obsession and guilt... An intoxicating follow-up to 2011's acclaimed The Somnambulist. Recommended to fans of Sarah Waters
All stars
Most relevant
I absolutely loved this book. I did not expect the resolution to the story and I was so happy with the care the author took to fully flesh out the paths of the characters. And it was quite funny with the character of Ivor Davies…Iva Davies is a famous, brilliant Australian singer and musician! Every time the name was said, my mind pictured Iva! I loved this.

Magnificent, moving and unexpected.

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