'Chillingly gothic' – The Guardian, Best Crime and Thrillers of the YearInspired by the haunting true story of the Winchester Mystery House, Palace of Shadows is a hair-raising gothic thriller from the prize-winning author of the City Blues Quartet, Ray Celestin.1899. The desolate Smugglers’ Coast of North Yorkshire is a place that strikes fear into those who live nearby. Unexplained deaths, suicides, young girls gone missing on the nearby moors ­­— the locals say it’s the grand house that drives people mad.Still, when Samuel Etherstone is contacted by its reclusive owner, Mrs Chesterfield, and commissioned to work on the property, he accepts the offer. For a penniless artist adrift in London, the opportunity is too tempting to ignore.It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of its architect’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the widowed Mrs Chesterfield, keeps adding wing upon wing, and no one will tell him the reason behind her chilling obsession. But as Samuel delves deeper into the mysteries that swirl about the house the nature of the project becomes terrifyingly clear . . .'Darkly entertaining' – Laura Shepherd-Robinson, bestselling author of The Square of Sevens'Its jaw-dropping finale will leave readers reeling. An absolute triumph' – Sunday Express'Moves exhilaratingly into Gothic territory' – Financial Times

Set in the late 19th century, [Ray Celestin] takes the true story of American weapons heiress Sarah Winchester’s San Jose mansion and transports it to Yorkshire, with chillingly gothic results, A beguiling standalone historical thriller . . . Its jaw-dropping finale will leave readers reeling. An absolute triumph, I loved Palace of Shadows . . . set on the Yorkshire moors in the late 19th century. Based on a true story, a labyrinth of timelines populated by vividly written characters offers a darkly entertaining plot, I could see elements of Wilkie Collins, Bram Stoker and even Lewis Carroll in this gloriously bonkers novel . . . a hugely entertaining slice of Gothic fantasy, Palace of Shadows moves exhilaratingly into Gothic territory

Ray Celestin is the author of the prize-winning City Blues Quartet, a series of novels which charts the twin histories of jazz and the Mob through the middle fifty years of the twentieth century. The first novel in the series, The Axeman's Jazz, won the CWA New Blood Dagger for best debut crime novel of the year, and was featured on numerous ‘Books of the Year’ lists. The second and third books in the series, Dead Man’s Blues and The Mobster's Lament, were shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the Capital Crime Novel of the Year respectively. The final novel in the series, Sunset Swing, won both the CWA Historical Dagger and the Gold Dagger 2022 and was described in the Sunday Telegraph as the conclusion to ‘one of the finest achievements of recent crime fiction’. Palace of Shadows is his fifth novel.