Vaudeline d´Allaire, famous spiritualist, and her apprentice Lenna are leaving in haste a séance held in abandoned chateau on the wooden outskirts of Paris to exceptionally return to London for solving a mysterious sudden death of the president of the Spiritualist Society. As they are getting more into the details of the crimes, that may also inolve Evie, Lenna´ sister for whose sake she, a skeptical scientist joined d´Allaire, but also the powerful men of the London Society and their greed for power and disdain for women intellect.
The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner is continuing some of the motives I´ve encounter in the other book by this author I´ve read few years back, namely apprenticeship and women relationships, but I´ve felt like the the story is better structured. Also, the element of whodunit adds more action to the book, while keeping the ending until the very end in a kind of spiritualist hollow.
Like Lenna, I am a scientifically-oriented mind, therefore, not necessarily the audience of d´Allaire audience, using séances, among others, to conjure the spirits of murder victims in order to ascertain the identity of their killers. But within the economy of the story, the spiritualist background helps to both create the ambiance and create the premises of the story.
Besides the historical fiction take and the crime/thriller development, the story is also following a queer story, with Lenna and Vaudeline burgeoning romance - and other unfulfilled attempts by Lenna, insecure about her sexual choices.
As in the case of The Lost Apothecary, the cover is outstanding - I had access to the book in printed format - not only in terms of graphic and choice of colours, but also from the point of view of the realization with unique 3D reflections.
This book is for historical fiction readers, with love for whodunits. Indeed, you can have best of both worlds, it seems.
Rating: 3 stars
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