Cora Crane

Description

From the highly acclaimed author of Infidelity comes a haunting novel based on the real-life romance between American author Stephen Crane and Cora Stewart, an exceptional woman of her time who made a profession out of love and deception. By the time Cora meets Stephen Crane, she has begun a new life in Jacksonville, Florida, after a turbulent marriage spent in late-Victorian London from which her husband refuses to release her. She is owner-manager of the Hotel de Dream but, like Cora, the hotel isn't what it seems: it doubles up as a high-class brothel. Back in England they live together as man and wife, but Crane is as fixated with war as he is with Cora. His wanderlust soon has him in Cuba, reporting from the front line, leaving his mistress abandoned in Surrey, desperately trying to survive in a world with rigid ideas of propriety, and terrified he may never return. Meanwhile, stubborn Detective Inspector Fred Hooper is on her case and tries to unravel her past, all the time fighting the dangerous allure Cora holds for him and the truth she makes him realise about himself.

Born in Wales, Paul Ferris is the renowned biographer of Dylan Thomas, Caitlin Thomas, Richard Burton, Huw Wheldon, and, most recently, Freud. His novels include The Detective and Talk to Me About England.

'Beguiling...Paul Ferris has imagined himself into a woman's skin and into her era, with remarkable subtlety.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Spare, often comic and unsentimental...he is very good on the telling detail.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'The story is one of subtle half-tones, of waiting and making do. Ferris's creation of Cora...is achieved with the lightness and honesty that characterises this book in general.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Ferris is as adept at mingling fact and fiction as he is at conjuring the... atmosphere of fin-de-siecle England.' THE SPECTATOR 'A highly colourful read, full of incident. Recommended for the long winter nights.' Irish Examiner Praise for Infidelity: 'What elevates Paul Ferris's excellent Infidelity to the very heights of thrillerdom is that it is based on a real-life juicy scandal. With great skill, he captures all the seediness, shallowness and sense of moral upheaval of war-torn Britain.' Daily Mail 'Skilfully weaves together fact and fiction, re-creating the passion and suspense of this most bizarre of true stories.' The Times 'The sad, desperate atmosphere of Crippen hovers. Good stuff.' Time Out