Burial Plot, The

'I genuinely could not put this down' - Stacey Halls, author of Mrs England
'A tour de force of a gothic thriller. I devoured it' - Gillian McAllister, author of Wrong Place, Wrong Time

The Burial Plot is a spellbinding historical Gothic thriller about murder and manipulation, set in Victorian London. From Elizabeth Macneal, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory.

London, 1839. With the cemeteries full and money to be made in death, tricksters Crawford and Bonnie survive on wicked schemes and ill-gotten coin. But one blistering evening, their fortunes flip. A man lies in a pool of blood at Bonnie's feet and now she needs to disappear.

Crawford secures her a position as lady's maid in a grand house on the Thames. As Bonnie comes to understand the family - the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself - she begins to question what secrets are lying behind the house's paper-thin walls and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning.

Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet . . .

'Taut, propulsive, beautifully done' - Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora
'Ingenious' - The Sunday Times

Review: Propulsive, rich and properly gripping. Macneal is a masterful storyteller - I genuinely could not put this down. -- Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars and Mrs England
The always-brilliant Macneal levels up once again in this tour de force of a gothic thriller. I devoured it. -- Gillian McAllister
A book to sink into and relish. Dark, clever, with a twist worthy of your attention. Macneal gets better and better. -- Kiran Millwood Hargrave, bestselling author of The Mercies
Elizabeth Macneal is the real deal - she crafts meticulously researched, page turning gothic tales in beautiful prose. The Burial Plot's rich blend of mystery, mayhem and murder both grips and enchants. -- Rachel Hore
The Burial Plot is gothic and gripping, full of twists and turns. I was hooked from the first page, and on constant tenterhooks about the fate of the book's heroine. Macneal brings Victorian England - and all of its potential dangers - vividly to life, and the characters leap off the page. -- Flora Carr, author of The Tower
Taut, propulsive, beautifully done - Macneal has once again written a richly drawn story with characters that leap from the page and a plot which hooks you in from the first page to the very last. -- Susan Stokes Chapman, Sunday Times bestselling author of Pandora
You know the books everyone loves? Wuthering Heights, And Then There Were None, I Capture the Castle? The Burial Plot deserves a spot right alongside them . . . I feverishly devoured every perfect page of Elizabeth McNeal's tense, terrifying, and absolutely brilliant novel. It's an irresistible work of genius. -- Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair
The Burial Plot is a masterclass in gothic storytelling. I was completely gripped from the first page, the period detail is utterly immersive and the tale Elizabeth MacNeal weaves is so dark, rich and compelling. Her main character Bonnie is a wonderful creation - flawed, sympathetic, fascinating - and I adored every moment I spent in her company. And the finale of the novel is just fabulous - it gave me chills -- Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den
Gripping, taut, elegantly-written and full of richly-researched period detail, The Burial Plot is exactly what a gothic should be: thrilling. -- Rebecca Stott
As dark, twisting and magnificent as Victorian cemetery itself, The Burial Plot is a brilliantly clever and richly imagined novel. I loved it. -- Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl
Macneal demonstrates her gift for conjuring up the 19th century . . . ingenious * Sunday Times *
A Gothic thriller which is both immersive and compelling. Its shivery spell might best be enjoyed on a sunny day. -- Teddy Jamieson, The Herald
Infused with a real sense of threat, it's a mesmerising and compelling read -- Heat
Another gripping Victorian thriller from the author of The Doll Factory -- Good Housekeeping, The best books to read this month
[The Burial Plot made] me think of the greatest Victorian crime or mystery novel, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins . . . Admirable and deeply enjoyable . . . Elizabeth Macneal has written a novel which, while offering a welcome escape from the times we live in, also presents aspects of human behaviour which are true to all time. I think it even better that its predecessor, Circus of Wonders.' -- Allan Massie, The Scotsman
This macabre mystery is perfect for those who enjoy historical fiction, more so the Victorians and death culture. -- The York Press



Author Biography: Elizabeth Macneal was born in Scotland and now lives in Twickenham. She is a writer and potter and works from a small studio at the bottom of her garden. The Doll Factory, Elizabeth's debut novel, was a Sunday Times bestseller, has been translated into twenty-nine languages and is now a major television series. Her second novel, Circus of Wonders, was also a Sunday Times bestseller.