Greg Fleming reviews The Shape of Darkness, by Laura Purcell 5 Feb, 2021 11:00 PM 3 minutes to read By: Greg Fleming Reviewed by Greg Fleming Laura Purcell has made a name for herself writing entertaining historical mysteries that are well researched and intricately plotted, without sacrificing a thriller's narrative drive. Additionally Purcell scatters through her stories period-specific trends and beliefs. An earlier novel, The Corset, explored the practice of phrenology – the erroneous belief popular in the 19th century that a person's entire character could be read in the shape of their skull. Here, she focuses on another little-remembered practice – making her lead protagonist Agnes Darken a struggling silhouette artist (prior to the advent of photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were a popular way of recording a person's appearance). The novel also explores the fringe science of mesmerism and forms of spiritualism which were popular in the Victorian age.