“Many
of the creepy late Victorian familiars abound in The Séance: the dark woods of the English countryside, the ruined
mansion with secret passages and hidden chambers and fog on the moors. There’s
even a sarcophagus in a dead fireplace, a tricked-out suit of armor and some
apparatus for collecting electricity when lightning strikes. Drafts blow out
candles at the most inopportune times. The literary conventions of the
Victorian suspense novel are present as well: the nested narratives that arrive
in mysterious packets, abandoned diaries and even a family tree—complete with
married cousins. Australian John Harwood, whose Ghost Writer won an International Horror Award in 2004, writes with
Poe and Dickens peering over his shoulders, shaking their wizened heads perhaps
over one modern twist: the strongest characters in The Séance are two women of action…The two stories—Constance’s and
Eleanor’s—mesh in the thrilling conclusion…Indeed, the ways in which Harwood
plays with the conventions of the form provide the main source of delight.”

“Elegant…The Seance captures the particular flavor of desperate morbidity
typical of the Victorians…The other side of Victorian sentimentality and melancholy was, of
course, its ruthless opportunism; the middle and upper classes wallowed
in sentimental bathos about dead children while blithely enjoying the
products of child labor…At the heart of every effective ghost story lies some pitiless truth.”

“This
crackerjack Victorian thriller has all the elements of a classic ghost
story…The Australian writer’s narrative is seamless; despite the supernatural
underpinnings of his story, the reader willingly suspends disbelief. And
Harwood understands that the true horror of The
Seance lies in the prison Victorian society created for young women without
money or prospects. Modern readers will hold their breath until the last
minute, hoping that Harwood’s estimable heroines escape the clutches of a
dreadful fate.”

“A superbly realized Victorian setting…Harwood has an unerring
feel for the mores and language of late-Victorian England.”

“Set in Victorian England, Harwood’s spellbinding second
novel pays homage to such nineteenth-century suspense masters as Wilkie Collins
and Sheridan Le Fanu…Harwood invokes the hoariest clichés of supernatural
suspense, from stormy nights to haunted houses, and effortlessly makes them his
own. The novel’s voice, too, is superbly crafted, accurate for the period but
never self-consciously antique.”

“A first-class Victorian thriller…Harwood, who has been
compared to Wilkie Collins, has crafted a fast-paced ghost story with an
old-fashioned touch. Recommended for all public libraries.”

“Typically Victorian in its emphasis on spiritualism, madness, and mesmerism, this is a tale of creeping dread and subtle evil…What makes Harwood’s writing special…is his ability to weave stories from different time periods and a cast of well-drawn characters into a believable, well-integrated whole. A fascinating historical portrait and a frightening tale that will generate suspicions of trapdoors and bodies in the attic.”