Family Business

A bone-chilling horror from the acclaimed writer of THIRTEEN STOREYS and hit horror podcast THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES JUST ANOTHER DEAD-END JOB. DEATH. IT'S A DIRTY BUSINESS. When Diya Burman's best friend Angie dies, it feels like her own life is falling apart. Wanting a fresh start, she joins Slough & Sons - a family firm that cleans up after the recently deceased. Old love letters. Porcelain dolls. Broken trinkets. Clearing away the remnants of other people's lives, Diya begins to see things. Horrible things. Things that get harder and harder to write off as merely her grieving imagination. All is not as it seems with the Slough family. Why won't they speak about their own recent loss? And who is the strange man that keeps turning up at their jobs? If Diya's not careful, she might just end up getting buried under the family tree. . . People can't look away from Family Business: ' Great horror novel that gets scarier by the page!' Netgalley reviewer, ' Sims is a master of the horror genre . . . perfect for Halloween reading ' Netgalley reviewer, ' Very much in the style of Stephen King . . . [this story will make you] fear to turn the page. A great read' Netgalley reviewer,

A bone-chilling horror from the acclaimed writer of THIRTEEN STOREYS and hit horror podcast THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES JUST ANOTHER DEAD-END JOB. DEATH. IT'S A DIRTY BUSINESS. When Diya Burman's best friend Angie dies, it feels like her own life is falling apart. Wanting a fresh start, she joins Slough & Sons - a family firm that cleans up after the recently deceased. Old love letters. Porcelain dolls. Broken trinkets. Clearing away the remnants of other people's lives, Diya begins to see things. Horrible things. Things that get harder and harder to write off as merely her grieving imagination. All is not as it seems with the Slough family. Why won't they speak about their own recent loss? And who is the strange man that keeps turning up at their jobs? If Diya's not careful, she might just end up getting buried under the family tree. . . People can't look away from Family Business: ' Great horror novel that gets scarier by the page!' Netgalley reviewer, ' Sims is a master of the horror genre . . . perfect for Halloween reading ' Netgalley reviewer, ' Very much in the style of Stephen King . . . [this story will make you] fear to turn the page. A great read' Netgalley reviewer,

In seventeenth-century France, families were essential as both agents and objects in the shaping of capitalism and growth of powerful states - phenomena that were critical to the making of the modern world. For household members, neighbours, and authorities, the family business of the management of a broad range of tangible and intangible resources - law, borrowing, violence, and marital status among them - was central to political stability, economic productivity and cultural morality. The business of family life involved relationships that could be intimate (family and neighbours), intermediate (litigant and judge) or distant (governing authority and subject), and the resources in question were the currency of the early modern world these people knew. In all these regards, litigation was a key means of negotiating and contesting the challenges of daily life and the larger developments in which they were embedded. The relationships between families, economies, and states have often been reframed but the perils as well as promises have persisted. Then, as now, husbands and wives found the experience of marriage to be fraught with uncertainty and risk; economic insecurity and ubiquitous borrowing were profound challenges; domestic violence was a telling marker of inequality in families. Julie Hardwick examines a critical period in the long history of family business to highlight the centrality of the lived experiences of working families in major political, economic, and cultural transitions.

In seventeenth-century France, families were essential as both agents and objects in the shaping of capitalism and growth of powerful states - phenomena that were critical to the making of the modern world. For household members, neighbours, and authorities, the family business of the management of a broad range of tangible and intangible resources - law, borrowing, violence, and marital status among them - was central to political stability, economic productivity and cultural morality. The business of family life involved relationships that could be intimate (family and neighbours), intermediate (litigant and judge) or distant (governing authority and subject), and the resources in question were the currency of the early modern world these people knew. In all these regards, litigation was a key means of negotiating and contesting the challenges of daily life and the larger developments in which they were embedded. The relationships between families, economies, and states have often been reframed but the perils as well as promises have persisted. Then, as now, husbands and wives found the experience of marriage to be fraught with uncertainty and risk; economic insecurity and ubiquitous borrowing were profound challenges; domestic violence was a telling marker of inequality in families. Julie Hardwick examines a critical period in the long history of family business to highlight the centrality of the lived experiences of working families in major political, economic, and cultural transitions.