The London Seance Society – Sarah Penner

Submitted: 27th February 2023

Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death but she has to find answers amongst the mediums of Paris. She is there to study with acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire who might have the answers she needs.

When she gets the chance to go to London’s exclusive Séance Society, there is another mystery to solve. Once you conjure up a spirit, do they ever really go away?

BookTrail Travel to the London Seance Society

Boarding Pass Information: Paris, London

Author guide: Sarah Penner

Genre: historical, gothic

Food and drink to accompany: jeepers, this is no time for thinking about food

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BookTrail Travel to the London Seance Society

Very excited to read this after the wonderful first novel The Lost Apothecary. I was not disappointed!

We start off in Paris in 1873 at an abandoned Château, about to take part in a seance. This author does not hang about! It’s wonderful how I felt thrown into the atmsosphere from the off and it was very enticing…

I found myself sitting with Lenna Wickes who is there to learn the skills to be a medium. She is working with Vaudeline D’Allaire, renowned for her skills in summoning ghosts. What she does next is the exciting part however as she finds out how they died and who killed them. Like me, Lenna was skeptical but then when her sister is murdered, she changes her mind.

Meanwhile, in London, the London Seance Society is in full swing. The President however is murdered too. The very same night as Lenna’s sister. Coincidence or something more wrong?

BookTrail Travel to the London Seance Society

The setting is wonderfully evocative and fully formed. It was creepy and dark from the off. Immersive and somewhere I wouldn’t normally go in real life so I felt brave! The Victorians obviously saw these seances as very important. They were fascinated with real life and questions around spiritualism and the dead. Sarah Penner wraps all of the mysteries and questions up in the most wonderful gothic bow and it really is atreat to read.

I enjoyed the way she captured London in its general sense too. The little alleyways, the corners of darkness and the smells really do jump from the page. The pace is like a passing horse and carriage – calm and slow at times, bumpy with mystery and then full pelt as all hell breaks loose and the horse bolts. No chance of wanting to get off though!

The séances are quite simply enchanting. I have never been to one unless count the ones in novels. This is one of the creepiest and I could take my eyes of what I was afraid to see.

The cover designer deserves a mention here too. Stunning.