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NEW STUFF: The Lock Artist - Steve Hamiltonįriday's Forgotten Books (405) obscure writers (160) Reading Challenges (145) First Books (100) book collecting (99) impossible crime (95) supernatural (83) suspense (77) Movies (65) locked room mystery (65) New Books (60) bizarre murder methods (59) Crime Club (56) ghosts (55) private eyes (55) Gothic (54) Left Inside (50) Neglected Detectives (50) Horror (49) Pulp Writers (45) publishing history (44) police procedural (43) noir (40) ephemera (39) comic crime (38) Video (37) Chicago life (36) adventure (35) blogosphere (33) DJ art (31) Jacket Required (30) paperback originals (29) academic mysteries (28) witchcraft (27) Christmas (25) science fiction (24) con artists (23) Agatha Christie (22) John Dickson Carr (22) Victorian sensation (22) inverted detective novel (22) satire (22) theater mysteries (22) Cool Flicks (21) country noir (21) occult detectives (21) French writers (20) Valancourt Books (20) non-English language (20) scientific detection (20) Edgar Awards (19) Halloween (19) fantasy (19) illustrations (19) bibliomystery (18) espionage (18) folklore (18) short stories (18) travel (18) alternative classics (17) art mysteries (17) historical mysteries (17) badass biddies (16) Patricia Highsmith (15) courtroom mysteries (15) lawyers (15) music (15) Oddities (14) Sherlock Holmes (14) master criminals (14) psychics (14) religious mysteries (14) sport mysteries (14) Drawing on the Past (13) cat-and-mouse (13) Flash Fiction Challenge (12) John Rhode (12) Richard Wilson Webb (12) antique mysteries (12) gangsters (12) spies (12) Australian writers (11) Bookplates (11) Canada (11) Dennis Wheatley (11) Tuesday's Overlooked Films (11) monsters (11) Hugh Wheeler (10) Jonathan Craig (10) Sax Rohmer (10) bookshops (10) magicians (10) Harry Stephen Keeler (9) Impressive Imprints (9) John Russell Fearn (9) Nigel Morland (9) Q.FFB: The Undying Monster - Jesse Douglas Kerruish.The Young Man From Lima - John Blackburn.FFB: The Coming of Jonathan Smith - Harry Ludlam.NEW STUFF: The Herring in the Library - L.C.FIRST BOOKS: Kill Me in Tokyo - Earl Norman.COOL FLICKS : The Missing Person (2009).FFB: The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon.NEW STUFF: Still Waters - Nigel McCrery.VIDEO & MUSIC: Happy 100th Bernard Herrmann.The finale gets overly complicated, but all the tangled ends of the plot wrap up in what amounts to three endings. Nice creepy touches include the suit of armor with a secret, the discovery of the hidden room where Cornelius Wraxford met his fate, the ghost that haunts Monk's Wood. A subplot features a bizarre science fiction element in that a character appears to have been experimenting with lightning in the hopes of gaining eternal life. It's a gripping and intriguing read with quite a few surprises. Reminiscent of the works of the Brontes or LeFanu with their memorable settings this story takes place in the intensely Gothic Wraxford Hall, a haunted and decaying mansion, and the surrounding grounds known as Monk's Wood.Īs with Collins there are multiple narratives that take the form of manuscripts, journals, diaries and letters and tells the story of a cursed family and its descendants. There are loads of supernatural overtones, a locked room mystery, several mysterious vanishings, a sinister doctor who practices mesmerism, and one gruesome murder by an explosive device. Here is an unabashed homage to the Victorian sensation novel and the early 19th century Gothic: a little of Mary Shelley, a little of Anne Radcliffe, a dollop of Walpole and even a dash of Trilby thrown in for good measure. Imagine if you can a crime fiction pastiche that is a mash-up of Wilkie Collins and John Dickson Carr and you will have Harwood's second novel The Seance.