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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chance's third novel is a triumphant mystery involving a complex web of lies, spirits, mediums and high society, May 29, 2008
This review is from: The Spiritualist: : A Novel (Paperback)
Evelyn Atherton (Evie to her friends) was living what seemed to be an ideal life until the night of January 15th, 1857, when she attended a spirit circle with her husband, who was seeking to contact his dead mother. Odd events transpired during the circle, including a gun "misfiring" (and nearly hitting her husband) and afterwards Peter, Evie's husband left, with a mission to ask questions because he believed the medium to be in danger. Though she didn't know it, this would be the last time that Evie ever saw her husband alive.
When Peter turns up dead Evie's world is turned upside down. Because of her middle class background as a private investigators daughter and then meteoric rise to one of the top ten thousand by marriage into the Atherton family, she is immediately a suspect in his murder. When evidence of their less than passionate marriage, their estrangement and Peter's will, leaving everything to Evie come to light it only reinforces the police's (and the Atherton's) conviction that Evie murdered her husband.
Because of her position as a one of the fallen rich Evie believes that no one will help her prove her innocence. But help comes from unexpected quarters when Peter's partner in law Ben takes on her case. And even more oddly, Dorothy Bennett, at whose home the fateful spirit circle took place, places bail for Evie and takes her in, believing they can contact Peter's spirit and learn the truth through her live in medium Michael.
Evie believes Michael to be a charlatan but her husband did believe someone was out to hurt him and therefore the answers to her husband's murder must be within the house or his circle. But at the same time she begins to have disturbing dreams and visions of her dead husband, warning her not to trust a man close to her.
Seduced by the mystery and magic of the spirit world (and perhaps by the medium himself) Evie is running out of places to turn and people to trust. And as the other members of the circle begin to see her as a medium in her own right, she begins to question her sanity. Trapped by charlatans, people who are desperate to fooled, and somewhere out there, the real murderer, can Evie use the skills her father taught her so long ago to unravel the web of lies and secrets that lead to her husbands death-before time runs out? Or will she collapse to a madness similar to own mother's, who too talked often of spirits...
I was so happy when I learned that Megan Chance had another novel coming out I didn't care what it was about, I just ordered it. But I was so happy that she returned to old New York, the site of what I believe is her best book An Inconvenient Wife This novel though, portrays the city and the society of the times less and the semi-hidden, often mocked but still trusted by man world of the spiritualists. Chance expertly portrays the desperate nature of those willing to believe almost anything to speak top or touch their departed loved ones, the haughtiness of high society and their contempt for all lower classes and the inevitable closing of ranks when one of their own has been wronged by an inferior.
Of course unlike her other novels this is a murder mystery, rather than a mystery of a strange event or of the psyche. And it is excellently done. There were points were I thought I had it figured out but then another twist would come and....Let's just say it's extremely well done. The whole book is an excellent read and a magnificent return to the publishing world. I hope her fourth novel comes soon!
Five stars.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
worth reading once, anyway, December 6, 2009
This review is from: The Spiritualist: : A Novel (Paperback)
I had the impression this book couldn't decide what it wanted to be. A bit of historical romance, a bit of murder mystery, a dash of ghost story thrown in.... all good solid Victorian fodder, but it was as if the author were ashamed to be writing anything so vulgar and so wrapped it in ho-hum literary restraint.
The heroine, Evelyn, is a bit of a wet rag. She's apparently intelligent, but she spends a great deal of the book letting herself be pushed and steered by people who claim to have her welfare in mind. Granted, she's a woman in a time when women had few legal rights, she's a middle-class girl adrift in an upper-class society that doesn't want her, and she's been accused of murdering her husband. A lot of bad stuff comes down on her at once; it's reasonable that she'd be a little dazed. But even when she does get angry, she doesn't get very angry, for very long, or at times when it would do her any good. This general lack of emotional affect makes for a rather dull and frustrating book.
Particularly frustrating to me is the necessary concealment of information from the reader. In my opinion, the most skillful mysteries use redirection to obscure the truth until the very end, but in this case, the facts are only presented when we need to know them, and when they appear, they are served up on a silver tray with a big red arrow saying HERE'S A CLUE!!.... but Evie still doesn't know what to do with them. Meanwhile, I'm screaming at the book, "Good God, woman, how can you be so thick??" The plot depends upon the heroine's naivete to function, but from my modern viewpoint (which is also a bit jaded from way too much literary criticism), I knew exactly what was going to happen before the body had even been found.
I kept reading because the writing style is innocuous, and I was occasionally pleased by the descriptions of clothing, setting, and Spiritualist jargon. I'm a bit of a 19th-century buff, so much of the research was familiar to me and I think the author did a fair job of conveying Spiritualism as a branch sect of Christianity--a practice of faith to those who believed, a cult to those who didn't, and an opportunity for profit by the unscrupulous.
I've seen this book described as "suspenseful" in several reviews, but to my mind, mezzo-forte emotions and dramatic irony will only go so far. The middle third of the book is a snore--people go to breakfast and dinner, the handsome-and-concerned lawyer comes around, again.... there are more tepid and vaguely menacing conversations between Evie and the magnetic-but-dangerous love interest.... all accompanied by rustles of skirts, smoke from candles, raps from the spirits, etc.etc.... The cast wakes up in time for the climax and denouement, when Evie finally steps up and takes matters into her own hands. The last two chapters of the book are enjoyable, but they don't quite make up for the tedium that came before. Just skip through the middle third of the book; you won't miss much.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, June 9, 2008
This review is from: The Spiritualist: : A Novel (Paperback)
It's 1856, Evelyn Atherton's husband Peter has been murdered, unfortunately for her she is the main suspect in the crime. The Anthertons are members of the elite rich in New York City's high society, Peter by birth, Evelyn by marriage; something people have not forgotten. Evelyn soon discovers she has few true friends and once she finds herself facing formal murder charges those in high places are no longer willing to associate with her.
Before his death her husband Peter was involved in the world of the occult. He attended 'spirit circles' regularly where a medium, Michel Jourdain, attempt to communicate with Peter's recently deceased mother. Evelyn feels certain that Jourdain is somehow connected to her husband's death and with the help of her husband's best friend attempts to uncover the truth and find her husband's killer.
I enjoyed this story it was a very easy and enjoyable read. I found it sufficiently taut with suspense to keep the pages turning. I liked the character Evelyn Antherton and I thought that Megan Chance created a setting rich in historic detail. I enjoyed the occult story line and the confusion and uncertainty around Evelyn's feelings within that realm.
I've read Megan Chance's other novels; An Inconvenient Wife and Susannah Morrow. I thought they were very well written, I enjoyed the characters she created in both of those stories.
But I think that An Inconvenient Wife is a more complex and satisfying read.
The Spiritualist has some twists and turns and surprises but I wasn't that surprised, I think she alluded to the truth enough that you could see where the story was headed. Though I did enjoy the romantic relationship and found that story-line interesting and satisfying.
Overall a good read.
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