A Slow and Secret Poison

Lowkis (Spitting Gold) serves up an enticing sapphic love story that takes place on a supposedly cursed English manor. In 1926, Vee Morgan hopes to make a new start after a mysterious event landed her parents in jail. She takes a job as a gardener at Harfold Manor, working for the reclusive Lady Arabella Lascy and her dastardly illegitimate brother, Morry Reacher. Lady Lascy has buried four brothers and believes her family is cursed, and that she is next. Vee doubts it, but when her cottage on the grounds is destroyed by rain, she moves into the main house and the pair begin an affair. Lowkis makes frequent allusions to Vee’s and Arabella’s past troubles, but doesn’t reveal the specifics until the final act, which will have readers reassessing their view of the characters. Lowkis effortlessly toggles between past and present, and the novel swerves artfully from gothic tropes (“The lane sucks at my boots, as if the manor grounds don’t want me to leave”) to knotty and surprising psychological suspense. There’s much to admire in this twisty tale. Agent: Ginger Clark, Ginger Clark Literary. (Feb.)