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Constance Langton’s childhood takes an unhappy turn when her younger sister Alma dies at the age of two. Her mother goes into mourning and hardly speaks to anybody, and her distant father ignores her and eventually abandons the family. Since she feels unloved and neglected by her parents, Constance begins to think that she might have been a foundling. However, her questions remain unanswered because the girl has no one to confide in. She often feels alone and she can’t bear to see her mother so unhappy, therefore, Constance wants to find a way to cheer her mother up and to put an end to her pain. Thus, one day, Constance pretends to be taken over by Alma’s spirit and tells her mother that she is in heaven. The girl thinks that her mother will finally be able to go on with her life and to stop mourning, now that she knows that Alma is in heaven. Constance’s mother, however, seems to become obsessed with the idea of hearing Alma. Thus, the two attend a series of séances where Constance continues to pretend to be her sister. Her mother seems to be happy and she even smiles sometimes, but she is no longer content with only hearing Alma; she also wants to see and hold her. In desperation, Constance decides to take her mother to a séance held by a group of charlatans. There, her mother is convinced that she has really seen her beloved Alma and after all these years of grief, she finally seems to have found peace. But when Constance’s mother commits suicide after this event, the girl is shattered and she begins to blame herself for her mother’s death. Since her mother is gone, Constance is all by her self and she feels hopeless and lonelier than ever. Much to her surprise, Constance soon learns that a distant relative has bequeathed her entire estate to her. The protagonist finds out that the estate consists of Wraxford Hall, a derelict manor house in the English countryside. The decaying mansion has an obscure reputation: once, people have mysteriously disappeared there and other sinister things have taken place. Still, Constance doesn’t seem to be deterred by Wraxford Hall’s sombre history. She is determined to find out everything about the decaying mansion and about her distant relatives in the hope that she will learn more about herself. While she tries to unveil the dark secrets of Wraxford Hall, she becomes more and more convinced that she has indeed been a foundling, as she feels a strong connection to Wraxford Hall’s former residents. As the protagonist digs deeper into the mysterious events surrounding the decaying mansion, she finds herself entangled in a web of secrets, lies and deception. Thus, Constance needs to be careful, as in this world of illusion, nothing is quite as it seems and hidden dangers await her.

The Séance is an accomplished second novel from a very talented author; this compelling tale pays homage to Victorian Literature and to Victorian ghost stories. John Harwood has created a captivating world of intrigues, mysteries and dark secrets. The reader will enjoy this suspenseful ghost story, as the author has successfully managed to capture the language and spirit of the Victorian period and in addition, he has provided us with a well-constructed plot and fascinating characters. The Séance will appeal to readers who enjoy Victorian ghost stories and gothic tales and I recommend this novel to everyone who is interested in the Victorian Era. I am a huge fan of Victorian ghost stories, thus I must say that I loved this spellbinding tale! I really liked reading about Wraxford Hall, with its secret passages and hidden chambers, and I loved how the author has used the elements of a classic ghost story in this engaging novel (haunted houses, stormy nights, skeletons in the closet, dark mysteries and secrets, etc.). All in all, The Séance is a terrific Victorian ghost story and therefore, a must read for ghost story lovers! ( )

oh so tantlisingly close to being more than very good - oh so tantilisingly close! harwood's "the seance" is well crafted, with a truly monstrous villain (all the more so because he;s such a measured presence in the book) and believable heroines and some passages of real, tangibile tension. but... it's really a pastiche victorian sensation/ crime novel which never really achieves what it wants to do. for my money even something with such modest intentions as the railway detective books by andrew martin are more successful than this - modest aims, but brilliant achievements for the historic background and attention to detail in jim stringer's world. this - is simply just very enjoyable, which is a damned shame because harwood is obviously a very clever writer. the idea of marrying victorian sensation fiction with the slightly literary style of wilkie collins and the crime fiction of john dickson carr is a very good one. sadly it's more a pastiche of other pastiches in the end. the plot works, but at times seems hurried and muddled, and in the end it just reiterates to me what a phenomenal piece of work charles palliser's "the quincunx" is - pastiche, crime novel and postmodern literary masterpiece. with just a bit more effort harwood could have done something special and truly memorable. as it is, it's just a fun read. shame really ( )

Really enjoyed this book. ( )

Almost the best thing I can say about this book is "I liked the cover". It's a pastiche of the great Victorian Gothic novel, with overtones of Wilkie Collins. Sadly, the great Victorian public had more patience and more time on their hands than I do, and had also been less exposed to popular culture (there having been less of it around at the time) and were thus possibly less able to predict every. Last. Word of the storyline. There are no twists and no surprises: it does exactly what it says on the tin.

To be fair, I quite enjoyed the first section, the saga of poor, sad Constance with her unloving father and her melancholic mother and how her urge to help said mother leads her to the fatal path of spiritualism, but as disaster and woe piled on disaster and woe I was, once again, irresistibly reminded of Edward Gorey. When the perspective shifted and the next narrator took up the story I found myself skipping and, in the end, just read the last section, in which Constance picks up the narrative again, and found that, actually, I had missed almost nothing at all.

I will give it credit for this. On learning that her nursemaid's mother had had five children die, Constance naturally assumes that she must have been even more grief-stricken than Constance's own mother, who had lost only one child. "But no, said Annie, there had been no time for mourning; her mother had been too busy looking after the rest of them." Melancholia was and, I suppose, still is, strictly a middle-class privilege. ( )

A nice spooky gothic novel complete with clairvoyance, cruel parents, a monk, lightning rods and a suit of armor. A book to be read by lamplight in a darkened room with the wind howling outside. And yet the author is not merely writing within the gothic genre; he is to some extent standing outside and using this format to explore several historical/literary themes and structures. A book that shouldn't be taken at its face value. ( )