“Oh, Darwin, Darwin, Darwin,’ said Stoupe. ‘The very enemy of magic himself. Very well then, perhaps not butterflies but even Mr Darwin would struggle to explain where we go when we die. He might be up there now, in fact, sitting on a wooly mammoth and thinking himself a perfect clown.”
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This book intrigued me with the concept but blew me away with the execution. William is an engineering professor who is frustrated by his wife’s belief in communicating with spirits. She lost her brother in the sinking of the Titanic and he finds out she’s been secretly attending seances to try to contact him. When the family is rocked by another tragedy, William decides to throw his scientific efforts into determining if the seances are real or just a hoax. His work becomes famous as he begins to believe that communing with spirits just may be real. His passion grows into a frenzy and he is shaken when he meets none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini who don’t think his experiments are as clean as he thinks. From there we follow his descent into madness as he is haunted by these spirits and whether they are real or not.
There were definitely moments along the way that I wondered where things were going and whether I would like that direction but I was equally intrigued by what William was experiencing and wanted to figure it out. I loved the scientific approach to his experiments and how we were along for the ride with him through each trial. I did figure out one of the twists but the other one gobsmacked me. I loved the ending, the last quarter was just perfectly done.
This one is a perfect creepy read for spooky season. I especially loved the fact that this was based on a true story, so it felt like while I was entertained I was learning a fun piece of history. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy. All opinions above are my own.
I’ve ordered a copy of this for my shelves, for those of you who Netgalley, do you often buy books after you’ve read and reviewed?
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