Drowning the Gowns - Softcover

This historical novel features the exploits of real-life artists in Venice, 1894. American novelist Henry James takes a nighttime gondola out into the Laguna to dump armfuls of a recently deceased lady's garments. Irish artist Reuben Ross accidentally witnesses this bizarre event and, as he attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding it, finds himself adrift in the city's mist-shrouded maze of canals and waterways, entangled in ghostly and political intrigues that span the American Civil War, the Irish Home Rule Crisis and the First World War. Seeking to find the truth, Reuben risks losing his mind as he gradually discovers there is more to drowning these gowns than the mere disposal of unwanted belongings.

Peter Hollywood was born in Newry, Co. Down, in 1959, and currently lives in Belfast. He has worked in bookselling and teaching. He has previously published short story collections including Hawks (2013), Jane Alley (1987), Lead City & Other Stories (2008) and his first novel, Luggage (2010