Historical settings and Gothic unease give Sarah Perry a way to write about belief, knowledge and obsession. The Essex Serpent is set in late-Victorian Essex, where widow Cora Seaborne investigates reports of a mysterious creature while becoming close to a local clergyman whose worldview differs sharply from her own. Melmoth turns an old legend about an eternally wandering witness into a darker contemporary story about guilt and complicity. After Me Comes the Flood begins with a man arriving at an isolated house whose residents seem to have been expecting him, while Enlightenment links astronomy, religion and a long-running mystery in an Essex town. Perry’s novels are measured, atmospheric and idea-led rather than fast thrillers. They fit historical literary fiction, modern Gothic and novels about science and faith, with useful links to Hilary Mantel and Diane Setterfield. Read more Less
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