The Death Of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

 

When spinster Jane Lawrence's guardians decide to move abroad, she is left with a choice to make.  Should she accompany them?  She decides instead that she will get married.  Not a conventical marriage but one where she and the man she marries will respect each other but live as separate entities.  She meets and approves of a local doctor, Augustine Lawrence.  Her demand is to be able to work and keep the books of his practice; his only demand is that she will never go to his ancestral home.  They marry and the first days pass easily.

But an unforeseen event leads Jane to Augustine's home and she starts to learn that he isn't exactly the man she thought she had married.  He is keeping secrets and she slowly starts to learn them.  She also realizes that she is actually in love with him and he with her.  But can she live with a man who has hidden a first marriage from her as well as the fact that his wife died during an operation he performed?

Jane meets with a group of Augustine's college friends and they introduce her to beliefs in magic and the practice of it.  When Augustine disappears, Jane tries to locate and save him with the black magic Augustine was adamantly against.  Will she be successful?

This novel was an NPR Best Book of 2021.  It reads like a Victorian novel but seems to be set some time later.  Jane is an independent women who is determined to make her own way and have a marriage that works for both of them.  She changes when magic enters her life to become more dependent on others and becomes full of misgivings and fear.  It felt like the novel could have been edited to be shorter and pack more punch but was still an interesting read. I listened to this novel and the narrator 's English accent really added realism and interest.   This book is recommended for horror readers.