PearlyBooks

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London, 1873. Returning home from his travels with a stowaway named Kayan, Walter Balanchine is noted for the charms, potions and locket hanging from his neck. Finding his friend Tom Winter's mother unwell, he gives her a potion he learned to brew in the Far East. Lucid and free from pain, the old woman remembers something about Walter's mother. Walter is intrigued, for he has never known his family or even his own name - he christened himself upon leaving the workhouse. Living in a cemetery with his pet panther Sinbad to keep the body snatchers away, word soon spreads of his healing and magical abilities and he becomes a sought after party performer. During one of Walter's parties, Tom is approached by Tamara Huntington, who reveals she is being forced to marry a man she does not love. Will he and Walter come to her rescue? Try as they might, sometimes all the best intentions in the world can't put a stop to a bad thing, and she is soon married off to the cruel Cecil Hearst. Drama and tragedy ensue, and Walter keeps his distance from Tamara. That is until her stricken brother-in-law Daniel requires his magical healing, and he is forced back into her life. With secrets beginning to emerge, Walter finds his mother may be a lot closer to home than he realised! Filled with mystery, magic and larger than life characters,
Illusion will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Praise for Stephanie Elmas
'Conjures the kind of atmosphere that laudanum dreams are made of.' - After Nyne Magazine
'Captivating and delectable.' - Liz Wilkins
'...a modern day ghost story and a Victorian chiller.' - The Huffington Post
'Elmas is a first-rate storyteller.' - The Surrey Post
'This book hasn't been written, it's been crafted.' - The Bookbag
Stephanie Elmas was born in Hong Kong to an English father and Czech mother but spent most of her childhood in Bristol. She studied English at university in London. Having worked as a head hunter, she taught English in Japan before returning to university to complete an MA in Victorian fiction. It was here that she developed her interest in the dark dangerous world of Victorian sensation writing. After the success of her first novel,
The Room Beyond, Elmas has returned to write the tale of the early life of East End mystic and illusionist Walter Balanchine. When she is not writing, Elmas teaches secondary school English and juggles a chaotic household in Surrey.