Purcell excels at creating a spooky Gothic ambience…A dark and unsettling novel for lovers of Rebeccaand Jane Eyre.”— Kirkus When I see a book by Laura Purcell now I snap it up instantly. I also know what to expect - something Victorian, gothic, slightly creepy, containing lots of accurate historical fact, well written and very enjoyable. Hester soon realizes that the task at hand is not as simple as she thought. Miss Pinecroft, hardly moves or speaks and spends her time sitting in a room surrounded by china cups and plates. Miss Pinecroft’s ward is Rosewyn, a strange young woman. There is also a highly superstitious maid called Creeda who believes in fairy folklore, and keeps insisting that Rosewyn needs to be protected from fairies who are trying to whisk her away and leave a changeling in her place. Purcell introduces superstition and the folklore of fairie with the inevitable changeling myths. Cornish folklore is central to the story. Add a few doses of laudanum and gin, some odd goings on with china (possibly something to do with the title no doubt) with the bone part being a bit literal, lots of things going bump in the night and some gloomy corridors. There’s plenty of melodrama and odd goings on and atmosphere: There’s a definite nod to Du Maurier with the Cornish setting, the house on the cliffs and the gothic nature. The protagonist is Hester Why (I found myself asking that question on a regular basis). She is fleeing London after a misunderstanding with a previous employer and taking up a post looking after an older woman, Miss Pinecroft. There are three different timelines and we see Miss Pinecroft in her youth. One of the themes is the search for a cure for TB. Miss Pinecroft’s father had bought the house for the caves underneath as there was a time when it was thought that cave and sea air was good for TB.

The past actions of Louise Pinefield (the lady of the house that Hester cares for) are still having repercussions to this day, and as Hester discovers more about the house certain revelations will change her forever. I had high hopes for this book as I have enjoyed her other books The Silent Companions and The Corset. Perhaps I was holding this book up to a very high standard, but I feel it wasn't quite as good as the other books I have read by her. I'll still be on the lookout for future books by this Author.Hester Why has changed her name and moved to Cornwall to look after the ailing Ms Pinecroft. Ms Pinecroft barely speaks or moves, spending her days in a freezing cold room filled with china. The House of Whispers" by Laura Purcell is an atmospheric, historical Gothic novel incorporating Cornish folklore as well as exploring the underground caves thought to possess healing powers though fresh air, sea bathing and exercise. The lives and secrets of two women, Hester Why (Esther Stevens) and Miss Louise Pinecroft unfold. Author Purcell maintains the spook factor throughout this novel of 19th Century superstition, fairy hauntings and "strange things on the moors". Highly recommended. Forty years later, Hester arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralyzed and mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try to escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers her new home may be just as dangerous as her last. Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft's family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr. Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the disease in the caves beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

My stomach churns along with the waters below. One of the few consolations I had cherished before this night was that I should behold the ocean at last. I had imagined it blue, serene. What seethes beneath me is dark, frighteningly powerful; a cauldron of demons”. Could not tell him that to my eyes, this was when she was truly beautiful; at the moment of fragility, when she required only me. Having loved The Silent Companions and The Corset by Laura Purcell I was excited to read Bone China as it was described as a A brilliantly atmospheric and chilling tale and seemed like my kind of book and while I enjoyed the story I found it a little confusing and had trouble connecting the threads within the story. Bone China is an eerie tale of obsession and redemption. It would appeal to readers who enjoy a psychological gothic mystery.

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Hester Why arrived in Cornwall with a hope for a fresh beginning as the new live-in nurse. Running from her troubled past, little did she know Morvoren House held its own secret, festering into the household in the last 40 years. As she tried to help them with the truth, she must toe it delicately or risked shattering everything she believed in. Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft's family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken, but Dr Pinecroft is working on a ground breaking experiment, convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home. The story was similar to The Corset in that the main character considered herself responsible for the deaths which seemed to follow her. She was in fact a very unreliable narrator since she was mostly under the effects of either gin or laudanum but that just added to the overall sense of suspicion and confusion. I enjoyed reading the two separate parts of Louise's life and trying to work out what had really happened in the past. Then came the totally surprising ending and I realised we will never really know. I usually hate endings that leave things unexplained - for some reason I do not mind when this author does it! What will she write next I wonder. I really enjoyed reading Laura Purcell’s book, “The Silent Companions,” therefore, I was quite excited to get my hands on a copy of this book.

A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. Forty years ago, Louise and her father, Dr Pinecroft, lost their entire family to consumption, leaving them the only survivors, weighed down by an unbearable grief. Dr Pinecroft becomes convinced that sea air is the key to a cure for the ravages of the disease. To prove his controversial ideas, he undertakes an experiment, acquiring some prisoners with the disease, with his daughter, Louise helping him to manage. He brings them to the house, has them taken down into the caves, looked after by carers. What happens there has consequences that echo down the years, and form the basis of local legends and myths. Hester is a woman with the love of gin and opium, it is rather difficult to discern just how far we can trust her through the blurring haze of unreliable experiences. The author excels in creating the psychological conditions where ambiguity runs throughout the narrative, is it the supernatural at work or is it madness? I enjoyed the past story line more than the present. I found the characters in the past story line were more interesting and more fleshed out. I felt that there was something missing with Hester's character. I wanted to know a little bit more about her and her past before she was employed by her previous employer. We do get some info but I really felt as if her character was a little flat. Separately we have chapters from when Ms Pinecroft was younger, when she first moved there with her father to set up an area for those suffering with tuberculosis. But there is something going on around the beach. The men are in delirium and it can’t just be the illness.I think at this stage, we can say the only book I enjoyed from Purcell is The Silent Companions. The Corset was a miss being very crowded and having plot holes in it. Purcell paints a colorful portrait of her tale’s distant time and place and immerses the reader in an era when superstition was a tenacious thread in the social fabric that bound its people. Her tale of secret guilt and atoning for it through ancient customs will please fans of classic gothic melodrama.”— Publisher’s Weekly We learn later that Hester Why is not actually her real name and that she is running away from London, trying to hide, due to something that happened in the past. We also learn that she’s addicted to Alcohol. Bone China did not let me down. There was my much loved Cornwall which can indeed be a spooky place up on the moors and on the bleaker parts of the coast line. There was all the history of the time - the folklore, the strange to us medical practices, the china clay industry in earlier days. The unsettling ambience of the book keeps you on the edge of your seat, as it’s quite chilling. You’re never too sure of some of the characters’ intentions, and whether the fairy legends and folktales are true after all.

Also, the use of same content now feels like a copy paste. The spooky house, the creepy staff, a furniture related to the story (in this case, the china). I personally don't want to read the same book that feels like it's built over a formulation. I would like to see some originality even if it's the same writer. Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr. Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the disease in the caves beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm. This is a Victorian gothic tale that is complex and dark. It explores fairy legends and folk tales of Cornwall in a lot of detail and we also learn some historical facts about how consumption (Tuberculosis) was treated in those times. I will agree that this book is atmospheric and Gothic but for me it missed the mark on bringing on the full "creepy" factor and the ending left me with more questions than answers. The two story-lines do come together but with a fizzle and not with the bang I was hoping for. For me this book felt a little disjointed and I would have liked the past and present story-lines to line up a little better than they did. It's not a good sign when I'm hoping I can finally get through that last hour my kindle is showing me I have to go until it's finished. The book's beginning held great promise, so I was disappointed with the book's progression. There were a lot of really strange things going on with supposed fairies, bone china that sometimes changed pictures, sounds of drips and disembodied singing, that all added up to a lot of hogwash to me. My favorite part of the book was when Hester was first welcomed upon arrival into the warmest part of the house, the kitchen- fussed over and made to warm up with freshly baked bread and hot tea. I also loved hearing about how they made hot chocolate each morning for Miss Pinecroft. I guess you could say my favorite part of the book was in the kitchen! Although I was slightly disappointed with this offering, I will definitely look forward to reading her next one.I didn’t love this one as her previous two books. Neither have come close to The Silent Companions - I loved that one. Suspenseful… This smart and sophisticated historical thriller will appeal to fans of Sarah Waters’s Fingersmithand Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” —Publishers Weekly Set on the cliffs of Cornwall, the scene is set for Hester Why to join the staff in Morveron house, and within a very short timeframe things become increasingly odd. The book focuses on Hester’s story, and the medical experiments that took place in the cliffs under the house forty years previously. With Louise’s help, Dr Pinecroft does experiments and tries to test his theories of treating consumption. He takes a group of prisoners, who are suffering from the illness, and places them in a cave beneath the cliffs, where he says the salty sea air will be good for their health. The details of Dr. Pinecroft’s research are based on real life cases from the Victorian era.