Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.įrom the Back Cover From the International Horror Guild Award-winning author of The Ghost Writer comes another mesmerizing gothic tale ' Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance's sister, the child she lost.Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance: perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. And she must descend into the darkness at the heart of theWraxford Mystery to find the truth, even at the cost of her life.Ī haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of The Ghost Writer Sell the Hall unseen burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will but never live there. Years before, a family disappeared atWraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation.Now the Hall belongs to Constance. For Constance's bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains-and murder.

So begins The Séance, John Harwood's brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late-Victorian England. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life. If so, I am torn between wanting it now, not a few years hence, even if I realise that the perfection of the text requires sufficient time to perfect the work.About the Book A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of The Ghost Writer Sell the Hall unseen burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will but never live there. I can't help but wonder if the author has any other work in mind to delight us at some later stage. I would like to say something about the author's resolution of the mystery, but unfortunately, can't very well include any spoilers in my review. His ancillary characters, too, are nicely developed - although I wish he had given us a bit more of a glimpse of the Society for Psychical Research people. His ability to evoke a creepy atmosphere is astonishing while his attention to detail, as previously mentioned, is wonderful. The author constructs a wonderfully engaging plot, with a dastardly villain and heartbroken heroine. She, therefore, becomes cursed with the reputation of being a reluctant medium, and this reputation brings her to Wraxford Hall and the attention of its owner. She, unfortunately, was beset by 'visitations' from people who have died. Next, and a bit further back in time, Eleanor (Nell) Unwin's journal tells more of the history of the Hall. Thus, the reader is introduced to Magnus Wraxford, the owner of Wraxford Hall in 1870, and learns the tragic story of what happened to Constance's predecessors in that decayed mansion. His papers record his knowledge of events at Wraxford Hall going back almost twenty years. Montague's contribution comprises the next part of the novel. Even the unveiling of a charlatan by the Society for Psychical Research does nothing to deter Constance's zeal to bring comfort to her mother.Ĭonstance learns she is the heir to Wraxford Hall, but at the same time, receives a packet of papers from John Montague, the family lawyer, who tells her in no uncertain terms to 'sell the Hall unseen or burn it to the ground.but never live there'. Unfortunately, these visits do not promote any feeling of cheer in the older woman. Constance, in an effort to make her mother happy, accompanies that woman to seances. Unforgivably, Constance's mother sank into a deep depression after the loss and refuses to come out of it to bring Constance up as she should. The first, Constance Langton's narrative, set in 1889, records the effect on her household of the death of her baby sister, Alma. The novel unfolds in a number of sections. While it is a long time between drinks, so to speak, it appears that Mr Harwood has been devoting his time to achieving the certain perfection to detail which characterises his work. That charming man and talented author, John Harwood, has returned to our bookshelves four years after the appearance of his first novel, THE GHOST WRITER.

The seance by john harwood