The Burial Plot is a gothic thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man.
Propulsive, rich and properly gripping. Macneal is a masterful storyteller - I genuinely could not put this down. (Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars)
UK Booksellers:
The cover is crammed with motifs or storylines from the novel: a venus fly trap, a grand cemetery arch, a woman wading into a heart-shaped pond, a cottage on fire, two men fighting, a mourning coach pulled by horses, a fox being pursued, a rotting pineapple, a beautiful greenhouse, a spider at the centre of its web…
The Burial Plot will be published in the UK on 6th June.
About
London. 1838.
With the cemeteries full and money to be made in death, tricksters Bonnie and Crawford survive on wicked schemes and ill-gotten coin. But one blistering evening, their fortunes flip. 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. As Bonnie comes to understand the family – the eccentric Mr Moncrieff, obsessively drawing mausoleums for his dead wife, and their peculiar daughter Cissie, scribbling imaginary love letters to herself – she begins to question what secrets are lying behind the house’s paper-thin walls and whether her own presence here was planned from the beginning. Because Crawford is watching, and perhaps he is plotting his greatest trick yet . . .
Inspiration
Tap the icons above to scroll through more images which inspired me.
The Burial Plot is set in the 1830s, a time when grand, beautiful cemeteries were being constructed across the UK. While it is very much a standalone novel, with its own setting and cast of characters, I think it has echoes of The Doll Factory. Like with my debut novel, I found it enormously enjoyable to construct its macabre, unusual setting; to cram it full of oddities; and above all to build its plot and mounting sense of claustrophobia. And just like The Doll Factory, it is a thriller with a love story at its heart.
My hope is that the reader will root for the underdog, almost like a Victorian version of Parasite. While a grand cemetery is being built in the grounds of a strange crenellated mansion, Bonnie and Crawford trick their way into the household. Together, they slowly begin picking the house apart, hatching a plot to claim it as their own. But what happens when their schemes go too far, when motives are hidden, and secrets silenced? When Bonnie can no longer escape the web she has spun herself. When these schemes tip into something harmful, even dangerous. And this is where Bonnie comes into her own. Just like Iris in The Doll Factory, she is a woman who refuses to be cowed by the forces that oppress her, who will kick until she can carve out her own piece of freedom.
I am so proud of this book, which I began before The Doll Factory was even published. Five years ago, I had the cemetery setting, but after several hundred pages of abandoned words, I still couldn’t find my way in. I had the burial plot but not… well, the plot. It took two years and one very long train journey for me to realize what was missing. And then it suddenly became clear: I found my way to Bonnie and Crawford and their morally ambiguous world; to the curious fortified house and the secrets of a woman who had once been married to the owner; and, most importantly of all, to the moment when a girl recognizes her own power and takes control of her fate. I knew immediately that this was the book I had been so desperate to write, and these characters had to exist on its pages.
The Burial Plot is not a gloomy book. It carries, I hope, a sense of that brimming excitement that I felt when I sat down at my laptop to write each morning. While there are so many things I’d love readers to take away from this novel, above all I hope that they feel thoroughly entertained, and are kept guessing all the way through.
Author Quotes
Some writers have said some lovely things about The Burial Plot.
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)
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)