The Seance (Harwood novel)

Ever since her childhood Constance Langton has felt out of place. She never had a proper mother, as Constance's mom preferred to obsess over the death of Constance's infant sister Alma, to the point where this drove her to suicide many years later. To make matters worse, Constance seems to have the ability to see horrible visions of future deaths, which greatly unnerves her. In 1889 Constance discovers that she has inherited Wraxford Hall, a run down and supposedly haunted mansion in Suffolk. Despite warnings by the Wraxford family lawyer that the house has led to the death and disappearances of several Wraxfords - and that living there is not a good idea, Constance ends up drawn to the house, something that might spell her doom.

The Seance received positive reviews from Tor.com and The Independent,[4] the latter of which compared the book to the works of Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle, writing that both authors were "fascinated by the disputed borderland between the claims of the paranormal and the techniques of Victorian science. In the hands of a lesser writer, these elements might have seemed stagey and trite. But Harwood reinvests them with novelty and makes them genuinely spooky."[5] The Telegraph praised Harwood's writing, especially his "understanding of how two young women, Constance and Eleanor, are at the mercy of a society in which they have to fight for an economic stake, continually facing the anxieties of poverty and social banishment."[6]

• The White Body of Evening at HarperCollins