J.M. Varese is an American novelist and literary historian whose first novel, The Spirit Photographer (2018), was published to critical acclaim. Varese has also written widely on Victorian literature and culture, and has served in various capacities, most recently as Director of Outreach, for The Dickens Project at the University of California for over two decades.
The Company is a chilling gothic thriller, both subtle and relentless in its build-up of terror. The story creeps up on you much as the patterns in its poisonous wallpapers do: entrancing, entwining, and entrapping. J.M. Varese, with this deliciously disquieting novel, joins the company of Shirley Jackson, Sarah Waters, and Henry James. * Hollis Seamon, author of Corporeality and Somebody Up There Hates You * The Company is a roller-coaster of a read. Varese brings to life the true grittiness of 19th-century London with great enthusiasm, combining historical fiction with a feel for the gothic thriller -- Amanda Foreman, author of THE DUCHESS The Company is diabolically good. The sibling heirs to a troubled wallpaper manufacturer are charmed by the charismatic Mr Rivers. But is he a saviour or something corrupt and corrupting? J.M. Varese's gothic tale is sinuously elegant and claustrophobic as deadly Victorian wallpaper -- Kate Griffin, author of FYNESHADE Fyneshade Reimagining Victorian haunting for a new generation, this brilliant novel grounds its terrors in the company we keep and the Companies we make and trust. As eery as the stories of M.R. James, The Company creeps up on its readers before it so splendidly pounces. The new master of suspense has arrived -- John Bowen, author of OTHER DICKENS