The Séance

By: John Harwood

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Simon Vance, Katherine Kellgren

A haunting tale of apparitions, a cursed manor house, and two generations of women determined to discover the truth, by the author of The Ghost Writer.

Sell the Hall unseen; burn it to the ground and plow the earth with salt, if you will; but never live there…

Constance Langton grows up in a household marked by death, her father distant, her mother in perpetual mourning for Constance's sister, the child she lost. Desperate to coax her mother back to health, Constance takes her to a séance; perhaps she will find comfort from beyond the grave. But the meeting has tragic consequences. Constance is left alone, her only legacy a mysterious bequest that will blight her life.

So begins this brilliant and gripping novel, a dark mystery set in late-Victorian England. It is a world of apparitions, of disappearances and unnatural phenomena, of betrayal and blackmail and black-hearted villains - and of murder. Constance's bequest comes in two parts: a house and a mystery. Years before, a family disappeared at Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside with a sinister reputation. Now the Hall belongs to Constance, and she must descend into the darkness at the heart of the Wraxford mystery to find the truth - even at the cost of her life.

©2009 John Harwood (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Brilliant story - one narrator not so much!

I loved this story!
All the different timelines and how it all came together at the end.
I also enjoyed the different voices for the different characters BUT Constance’s narration was very bad and distracting.
Screaming the one minute, soft the next, fast and then slow. I couldn’t bond with Constance because of the terrible narration.

Just ok; not horror or ghostly

This was like a Seinfeld episode where there are multiple storylines that all come together in the end. While we’ll written, I was disappointed that it was not a horror story, but a murder mystery. The narrator at the end was over the top in her acting, and I had to stop and turn the volume way down. Overall, just ok.

Just OK

Story was OK, wordy, and confusing at times. I listened to it all, but can't recommend.

that narrator!

she had me glued to my seat! fantastic job, her telling of this story is just WOW!

Simply wonderful

The perfect combination between a great plot, amazing characters, suspense and mystery. I absolutely loved it.