From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is an unstoppable thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. But he's always one step ahead . . .
London, 1839. Where the cemeteries are full and land is worth more to house the dead than the living, Bonnie and Crawford lead a life of trickery, surviving off ill-gotten coin and nefarious schemes. Until one hot evening, their luck runs out. 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, still deep in mourning for its late mistress. As Bonnie comes to understand this family - the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums grand enough for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself from the mysterious Lord Duggan - so too does she begin to question what really happened to Mrs Moncrieff and whether her presence here is all part of some dark plan.
Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet . . .
The Burial Plot is a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase, and Elizabeth Macneal's most page-turning novel yet.
About the Author
Elizabeth Macneal is the author of two Sunday Times-bestselling novels: The Doll Factory, which won the 2018 Caledonia Novel Award and has been adapted into a major TV series on Paramount+, and Circus of Wonders. Her work has been translated into twenty-nine languages. Born in Scotland, Elizabeth is also a potter and lives in Twickenham with her family.
Industry Reviews
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
