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In the aftermath of the American Civil War, many grieving families in northern cities such as Philadelphia turned to the growing Spiritualism movement and in particular to mediums who claimed to have a channel of communication to the great beyond. This naturally led to these families being preyed on by hucksters and charlatans who falsely claimed to have extraordinary powers, which in turn led a backlash against these mediums from the city's business and professional classes.
As THINGS HALF IN SHADOW begins, Philadelphia newspaper reporter and Civil War veteran Edward Clark is living an enviable existence: having independent means, but still enjoying his work as a newspaperman. Edward is engaged to the beautiful Violet Willoughby, who adores Edward; even if her family is skeptical of his barely respectable profession. When he's assigned to a story investigating and exposing the city's mediums, at first Edward is dubious about working such a sensational beat, but his hyper-rational side leaps at the chance to expose what he considers to be a fraudulent profession. Added to that, the prospect of impressing Violet's father, who is ardently skeptical about the city's mediums causes Edward to leave his reluctance behind and commit himself to outing as many mediums as he can as frauds.
After attending his first seance, performed by a medium named Lucy Collins, that is pretty transparently a put-on to Edward's keen eyes, Edward is buoyed by the prospect of exposing her and more of her profession. But before he can even start writing his expose, Lucy Collins appears on his doorstep with damning information about Edward's early life and proposes that they team up to expose the other mediums in the city. This appears to be a mutually beneficial arrangement with Edward preserving his reputation and Lucy eliminating her competition one by one.
Edward and Lucy's first intended target is Lenora Grimes Pastor, a medium whose gifts appear stronger than Lucy's; but at an impressive seance which hits a bit too close to home for Edward's comfort, Pastor is dead once the lights come up. Since she was an apparently healthy woman, foul play is quickly suspected and the visible puncture wounds on her neck only confirm this for Detective Barclay - an old Army friend of Edward's. With a limited number of suspects who were locked into the seance room, Edward and Lucy become prime suspects and are desperate to prove their innocence.
In addition to the danger to their livelihood, Edward's position at the paper is threatened and Violet's family is increasing critical of her engagement to a man embroiled in a murder investigation; so Lucy and Edward set out to clear their names by solving the murder.
THINGS HALF IN SHADOW is an excellent historical mystery with a supernatural twist that walks a delicate balance between being a well-crafted historical mystery while also dealing with sensational subject matter (in addition to mediums, P.T. Barnum and the circus subculture are featured in a subplot) in a measured way. Luckily, that measured approach does not preclude this being quite the entertaining read with an understated sense of humor that serves the story well - indeed, rarely does a 400-plus page historical mystery fly by so quickly. The character of Edward Clark is unusually well-developed and his three-dimensional character evolves as he is forced to reconsider much of what he holds dear.
The denouement of the story seems a bit forced so as to set up potential sequels, but as a whole this is a fine historical mystery that is neither too dry nor too whimsical. Especially when a book has paranormal content, it may adopt a tone or take an approach that is incongruent with an otherwise serious historical mystery, but here the different narrative strains blend together seamlessly. While an exciting historical mystery that ranks with the recent work of Matthew Pearl and Lyndsay Faye as benchmarks in the genre, THINGS HALF IN SHADOW is also a strong work of character-driven historical fiction and readers of both genres won't go wrong by giving this book a try.
§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.
Reviewed by Ben Neal, February 2015
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