The Seance - Softcover

From the International Horror Guild Award-winning author ofThe Ghost Writer comes another mesmerizing gothic tale

"Harwood has written a true gothic, and invented a supremely creepy house to stage it in."
Salon.com

Wraxford Hall, a decaying mansion in the English countryside, has a sinister reputation. Once, a family disappeared there. And now Constance Langton has inherited this dark place as well as the mysteries surrounding it.
Constance grew up in a house marked by the death of her sister; she is no stranger to mystery, secrets, and dark magic. In a desperate attempt to coax her mother back from perpetual mourning, Constance once took her to a seance, seeking comfort from beyond the grave. But tragic consequences left her alone in the world alone with Wraxford Hall. Saddled with this questionable bequest, she must find the truth at the heart of the disappearances, apparitions, betrayal, blackmail, and villainy that mark its legacy, even at the cost of her life.

"Wilkie Collins would be proud: this is a Victorian world of mesmerism and spirits, vapours and delirium, doomed inheritances, shivery maids and spooky visitations in the night."
Times (UK)

"Perfect fare for a standard dark and stormy night."
Kirkus Review

John Harwood's debut novel, The Ghost Writer, won the 2004 International Horror Guild award for Best First Novel and the Dracula Society of Great Britain's Children of the Night Award for "outstanding writing in the gothic genre." Harwood lives in Victor Harbor, on the coast of South Australia."

John Harwood was born in Hobart, Tasmania. Educated in Tasmania and Cambridge, he went on to become Head of the School of English and Drama at Flinders University, Adelaide. He is the author of two books of criticism, Olivia Shakespear and W. B. Yeats and Eliot to Derrida: The Poverty of Interpretation and the novels The Ghost Writer and The Asylum.