A wonderful novel, enthralling, spellbinding, terrifying, full of twists and turns, written with heart and style – and the final chapters will have you racing to the end. A brilliant novel about a true story – and a real mystery.
Kate Williams, author of THE STORMS OF WAR
The Familiars is an intricate and sensitive portrayal of a brave, tenacious young girl carving her place in the world. A must-read novel.
Heather Morris, bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz
I read this in just over a day – I was completely hooked! An intriguing story about a fascinating period of history and brilliant female characters.
Libby Page, bestselling author of THE LIDO
The most spellbinding debut novel of 2019. To save her child, she will trust a stranger. To protect a secret, she must risk her life…
Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn’t supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.
Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.
As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the North-West, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye?
Soon the two women’s lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood’s stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake.
Only they know the truth. Only they can save each other.
Stacey Halls was born in Lancashire and worked as a journalist before her debut The Familiars was published in 2019. The Familiars was the bestselling debut hardback novel of 2019, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Book of the Year. Her novels The Foundling and Mrs England were also acclaimed Sunday Times bestsellers. Mrs England was further longlisted for the Portico Prize, the Walter Scott Prize and won the Women’s Prize Futures Award.
