A Skinful of Shadows

This is the story of a bear-hearted girl...

The Felmotte family have a dark and terrible secret: inheriting the title of Lord Felmotte means not only taking on centuries of family history, political allegiance and land, but also the souls of seven previous patriarchs - jostling for space within the poor beleaguered body of the heir.

When civil war takes the Felmotte men into battle for King Charles, attention turns to 15 year old Makepeace, the bastard child of the current heir, in possession of the family 'talent'. Working as a servant and kept around in case of just such an emergency, Makepeace knows what that attention might mean and, rather than become a vessel for the bickering souls of generations of angry, volatile men, she must use her secret weapon: the spirit of a very angry, very dead bear. With the strength and instincts of the bear she is able to escape her family duty and head out into a country torn apart by war; but must soon decide which fate is worse: possession, or death.

A Skinful of Shadows is a dark historical tale from Frances hardinge, the Costa Award-winning author of The Lie Tree.