'Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plough the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there...'. London, the 1880s. A young girl grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance Langton takes her to a seance. Perhaps they will find comfort from beyond the grave. But that seance has tragic consequences.Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest will blight her life. So begins "The Seance", John Harwood's brilliant second novel, a gripping, dark mystery set in late Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains - and murder. For Constance's bequest comes in two parts: a house, and a mystery. Years before a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a terrifying stately home near the Suffolk coast. Now Constance must find the truth behind the mystery, even at the cost of her life. Because without the truth, she is lost.
Ohhh was this such a good read, think Victorian Gothic, think Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White", think good old fashion mystery, if you like any of those then you'll love this novel! The story is told from three different points of view, that of Constance Langton, a young woman, John Montague and Eleanor Unwin, each point of view peels back a layer of the mystery, and all three are equally engaging. The book is just so atmospheric, spooky, I can guarantee you once you start this one you will not want to put it down, a fabulous read!!
