The Other Side of Midnight by Simone St. James

After reading Simone St. James' The Broken Girls, I decided to try another of St. James' paranormal mysteries. In the aftermath of WWI, many in a nation grieving the loss of a generation of men and boys turned to seances, psychics, and mediums who promised communication with the dead.

The Other Side of Midnight, set in 1925 London during this resurgence of spiritualism, involves psychics and a handsome debunker of psychics in a paranormal mystery/romance.

When Ellie Winter's former friend and rival Gloria is murdered,  Gloria's brother engages Ellie to find out who killed her and why.  Ellie teams up with James Hawley, war veteran and debunker, and the two begin investigating--discovering secrets and courting danger along the way.

The Other Side of Midnight is a pretty light read.  There were elements I liked well enough, but I wasn't bowled over by any means.  I do like that St. James wants to write books like the ones she enjoyed by Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart:

"It wasn’t until my mid-20s that I discovered the old Gothics that were popular from the 1950s to about the 1970s – those musty old books you can find by the dozens, each one featuring a variation on the cover of the girl with flowing hair and nightgown fleeing a dark, foreboding house. These books are, shall we say, of varying quality (my personal favorite from my own shelf: “Lois Chalfont must choose between the devil and death!”) But several of the authors of old Gothics were truly talented, Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt being the top names of the genre.

I read – and still read – those books like crazy, and as I did I asked myself, “Why doesn’t anyone write these anymore?” So I write them, but I add my own sensibility to them. I make my heroines strong and independent. I set them in the 1920s. And I add ghosts."  (source)

The Other Side of Midnight was a bit of a disappointment after reading The Broken Girls, St. James' latest book.  (I wrote a little about The Broken Girls here when talking about books out next year.)  It was a modern ghost story with roots in the past that kept me enthralled and uneasy the entire time.  My full review is scheduled for Feb. 28, and the book will be published in March.  

So...while The Other Side of Midnight was not exactly what I was hoping for, I want to try Lost Among the Living, which returns to the post WWI setting.

And if you love a good ghost story, pre-order The Broken Girls!

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is one of those rare spooky ghost stories that caused me to take reading breaks because of the tension.   I know I've been mentioning this one since August, but I had to wait until closer to publication to post this review.  :)

A story told in two time frames; a boarding school story; a ghost story; a murder mystery--The Broken Girls truly gave me chills.  

In 1950 Vermont, a boarding school for recalcitrant girls (dumped there because they are unwanted or hard to manage) has been haunted since its inception.   The legends, true and/or exaggerated, have been passed down through the decades both orally and through messages in the school's textbooks.  Mary Hand knows--and the generations of girls who have attended Idlewild Hall are all affected by the truths she reveals. 

In 2014, a journalist haunted by the murder of her sister is shocked and disturbed that someone wants to restore Idlewild Hall.  She decides to write a story about the school, and that story leads to more mystery and danger.

Although I am often drawn to ghost stories, most books fail to satisfy or frighten me.  While reading The Broken Girls, I was able to  suspend disbelief and follow the story in past and present with bated breath.

Read in August; blog review scheduled for February, 2018.

NetGalley/Berkley Publishing Group

Mystery/Suspense/Supernatural.  March 20, 2018.  Print length:  336 pages.

I really wish this book had been scheduled for publication in October or November, months that seem particularly suitable for ghost stories.  

What are some of your favorite ghost stories?

Five Books Due in 2018

Often the books I get from NetGalley are 6 months or more in advance of publication; this can be frustrating because I don't want to publish reviews that far in advance, but I can't hold off reading the books.

Here are some brief descriptions of books I read in July and August that won't be published until 2018.  Reviews will follow closer to publication dates.

*The Night Market by Jonathan Moore (Jan.)   "..a near-future thriller that makes your most paranoid fantasies seem like child’s play."
Intense and uncomfortable speculative fiction. Engrossing, disquieting, conspiracy, manipulation, ambiguous conclusion.  I haven't read The Poison Artist by Moore, but now I want to--I think.  Maybe because I am now so distrustful of any rich and/or powerful institution (business, industry, church, state) right now, The Night Market had a chilling effect.

A Cold Day in Hell by Lissa Marie Redmond (Feb.)  (Cold Case Investigation #1) The major story line involves a current case in which detective Lauren Riley agrees to help a defense lawyer whose godson is on trial for murder.  OK, but not a series I will pursue.

The English Wife by Lauren Willig (Jan.)  Kind of spooky Gothic Lite.  If you are looking for Wilkie Collins or Du Maurier, this isn't going to satisfy, but The English Wife can provide an entertaining few hours and will be appreciated by fans of the author.

*The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor (Jan.) Had my complete attention from beginning to end!  Suspenseful, twisty psychological--an impressive first novel.  

**The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Mar.)   Yes! A great ghost story!  I love a good ghost story, but I'm fussy and critical--and frequently disappointed when most ghost stories turn out to be less than I hoped for.  The Broken Girls was more than I expected or hoped for. Two time frames, a boarding school, a murder mystery, and plenty of suspense.  

I'm surprised the publication wasn't scheduled for October or November--prime reading time for eerie, mysterious, and supernatural stories.  Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the heat of summer, but still...it would have been the perfect book for an autumn evening with a fire in the fireplace and a cold wind moaning outside.

On Ghost Stories, The Dead House, and Turn of the Screw

The Dead House by Billy O'Callaghan is rather spooky ghost story that has its roots in the Irish potato famine.  When Maggie, an English artist, seeks sanctuary after a brutal attack, she discovers a place in Ireland that seems made to order.  A ramshackle cottage that needs a complete overhaul in a setting that speaks to every fiber of her artistic center...and perhaps, to something else.  

You can read the description elsewhere, but the main characters are Mike, an art dealer in London; Maggie, an artist; and Alison, who has a gallery in Ireland.  The three are tied together through friendship, and in the case of Mike and Ali, something developing into love.  

The frame of the novel is similar to that of Henry James' Turn of the Screw and the book seems to be heavily influenced by James' work--in both content and style.

The pervasive sense of the sinister which James achieved is lacking, however, because O'Callaghan breaks it up with Mike's relationship with Ali, lighter episodes that relieve some of the tension.

The writing is often lyrical, but something about the logic goes awry.  Turn of the Screw is ambiguous--is it a ghost story or a psychological deterioration?  The first time I read it in high school, I thought it the most chilling ghost story ever.  On subsequent reads over the years, I recognized the other possibility, which is equally as chilling, perhaps even more so.  The sense of unease remains, the ambiguity remains, and whichever way you read it, Turn of the Screw is a frightening tale.

The Dead House is a ghost story that draws on James' work, but lacks the layers, the Freudian aura, the question of whether or not the young children,  Miles and Flora, have been corrupted by evil, and the story's refusal to take a side, to guide you to one conclusion or another.  Henry James left the interpretation up to the reader, but regardless of how one reads it, the experience is harrowing.  O'Callaghan leaves you with a ghost story that doesn't quite end, almost as if a sequel could be possible.

The Dead House has garnered many positive reviews, but it lacked some mysterious quality that allowed me to "suspend my disbelief."  

For me,  The Turn of the Screw remains the epitome of an excellent ghost story regardless of how you interpret it.  My second favorite is The Broken Girls by Simone St. James which combines a genuine ghost story and a mystery.

NetGalley/Skyhorse Publishing

Paranormal/Ghost Story.  first published 2017; May 2018.  Print length: 224 pages.

Talking to the Dead

Weisberg, Barbara. Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism.

The Fox sisters gained fame in 1848 when eleven-year-old Kate and fourteen-year-old Maggie began communicating with the dead by means of mysterious rappings and knocks that were heard throughout the Fox home. Instant celebrity followed: first locally, among friends and neighbors who came to the Fox home to be amazed and who attempted to uncover the source of the noises. Later, as word spread, the girls gained national and international acclaim.

Attempts to discover how the strange noises were manifested and to discredit the sisters were never completely successful, although many mediums who followed in their footsteps were easily exposed as frauds. The sisters, including older sister Leah, who knew an opportunity when it appeared, underwent many humiliating attempts to debunk their abilities, but the attempts had little effect. The young girls, guided by Leah, initiated a phenomenon that surprised almost everyone with its rapid spread, and soon the number of individuals who could talk to the dead multiplied.

Weisberg does a fine job of examining the Spiritualist movement, the cultural underpinnings of the era, and the lives of Kate and Maggie. What is amazing is the number of intelligent and well-known individuals who believed, who attended seances, and/or who attempted to expose them. Among those who attended their seances were Horace Greeley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and James Fennimore Cooper.

Weisberg's research is extensive and includes many primary documents from the time period, including books, letters, newspaper articles, and pages of secondary sources. Unfortunately, none of the Fox sisters left much in writing, and what there is (mostly in letters to devoted followers) never reveals evidence that is conclusive about their belief in their chosen profession. Maggie gave a lecture much later in life that decried their abilities as fake, but she later recanted.

I was originally drawn to the book by the "prophetic dreams" Captain Crozier experienced in Dan Simmon's novel, The Terror. His dreams included, but did not name, the Fox sisters and Elisha Kent Kane, one of the arctic explorers who searched for the lost Franklin Expedition. Elisha Kent Kane evidently fell for Maggie and pursued her with determination. The book did little to bolster Kane's reputation on a personal level, and his letters to Maggie are a combination of longing and contempt, as he felt Maggie to be beneath him.

Kane was 3o and Maggie was 19 when they met. He tended to be quite controlling, and believing the seances to be fraudulent, Kane attempted to separate Maggie from Leah (he saw the older sister as manipulative) and to persuade Maggie to give up her activities.

Shortly after "marrying" Maggie--this was not a formally legal marriage--Kane became seriously ill and died. His family denied that he had made any provision for Maggie, and a feud simmered between the evidently heart-broken Maggie and the Kane family for years.

Although their careers as mediums increased their financial status and their celebrity for a time, a serious down-side was that as they were entertained by the rich and famous, both Kate and Maggie developed a taste for alcohol that certainly aided in their fall from grace. Serious alcoholics by the end of their lives, both women died in impoverished circumstances.

Talking to the Dead tells the engrossing story of the rise and influence of Spiritualism, the Fox sisters, and the fears and uncertainties of the age in which they lived.

Update: The Stay At Home Bookworm has posted her review here.

Nonfiction. Biography/History. 2004. 273 pages.

stats (updated)

January

Consequences - Penelope Lively -258
Death of the Fat Man- Reginald Hill -404
Interred With Their Bones- 416
Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire - Mignola & Golden - 285
Hunting Fear - Kay Hooper -338
Outlander - Diane Gabaldon - 627
An Absolute Gentleman - R.M. Kinder -288
Dedication - Emma McLaughlin/ Nicola Kraus - 278
Forgive Me - Amanda Eyre - 234
The Winter Rose - Jennifer Donnelly -707
total pages Jan. - 3835; 10 books

February

Immortal - Traci L. Slatton - 513 pages
Raven Black - Ann Cleeves - 376
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett - 241
Standing Still - Kelly Simmons -262 pages
War of Honor - David Weber - 861
Why Mermaids Sing - C. S. Harris - 342
Silent in the Grave - Deanna Rayburn - 552
The Sonambulist - Jonathan Barnes - 353
Nameless Night - G.M. Ford - 338
total pages Feb. -3838; 9 books


March

In an Instant - Bob & Lee Woodruff - 292 pages
The Devil's Bones -Jefferson Bass - 309
Shadow of Saganami - David Weber - 755
Notorious - Michele Martinez - 336
The Serpent's Tale - Ariana Franklin -i371
The Book of Old Houses- Sarah Graves -294
Dance of Death - Douglas Preston, Lincoln Childs - 451
Letting go of the Person You Used To Be - Lama Surya Dad - 210
Christine Falls -Benjamin Black/John Banville- 340
Zel - Donna Jo Napoli- 227
Mystic and Rider -Sharon Shinn - 440
East -Elizabeth Pattou - 494
The Dream-Maker's Magic - Sharon Shinn - 261
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell - 245

March - 5,025 pages; 14 books

April

An Ice Cold Grave - Charlaine Harris - 280 pages
The Ghost Brigade - John Scalzi - 314
New Moon - Stephenie Meyer - 563
City of Bones - Cassandra Clare - 485
Aphabet of Thorn - Patricia A. McKillip - 314
Mad Kestrel - Missy Massey - 320
Book of a Thousand Days - Shannon Hale - 305
Death Walked In - Carolyn Hart - 293
Cauldron - Jack McDevitt - 373
A Flaw in the Blood - Stephanie Barron - 286
American Bloomsbury - Susan Cheever -200
Assassins at Osprey - R.T. Raichev - 222
The Pandora Prescription - James Sheridan - 414
The Fault Tree - Louise Ure - 336
The Girl with No Shadow - Joanne Harris - 444

April - 5,149 total pages; 15 books

May

The Forgery of Venus - Michael Gruber - 318 pages
A Lady Raised High - Laurien Gardner - 284
Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos - 388
Late Night Talking - Leslie Schnur - 308
Shadow of Power - Steve Martini - 390
Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen - 290
Souls of Angels - Thomas Eidson - 286
A Pigeon and a Boy - Meir Shalev - 311
The Stone Gods - Jeannette Winterson - 207
May - 2,782 pages; 9 books

June

The House at Riverton - Kate Morton - 473
A Fatal Waltz - Tasha Alexander - 289
Dreamers of the Day - Mary Doria Russell - 253
Eden's Outcasts - John Matteson - 428
Rubicon - Lawrence Alexander - 295
Blue Smoke and Murder - Elizabeth Lowell - 404
Ivory - Mike Resneck - 315
The Year She Disappeared - Ann Harleman - 306
Go Green - Nancy H. Taylor - 135
The Chameleon's Shadow - Minette Walters - 370
A Charmed Life: Growing Up in Macbeth's Castle - Liza Campbell - 321

June - 3, 589 pages; 11 books

July
Dark Summit - Nick Heil - 251 pages
A Pale Horse = Charles Todd - 360
The Sorcerers' Plague - David B. Coe - 393 pages
The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square - Rosina Lippi - 351 pages
Shadow Gate: Book Two of the Crossroads - Kate Elliot - 475 pages
The Poisoner of Ptah - P.C. Doherty - 378
The Crows - Maris Soule - 262
Light of the Moon - Luanne Rice - 386
A Magic of Twilight - S.L. Farrell - 526

July - 9 books, 3,382 pages

August
Touchstone - Laurie R. King - 548
A Slice of Organic Life - Sheherazade Goldsmith, ed. - 347
Moving Forward: Taking the Lead in Your Life - Dave Pelzer - 192
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows - 274
The Calling - Inger Ash Wolfe - 371
Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth - Stacy Cordery - 483
The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick - 533
Hand of Evil - J. A. Jance - 384
An Advancement of Learning - Reginald Hill - 288
The Primrose Convention - Jo Bannister - 267
By Schism Rent Asunder - David Weber- 494
Fathers and Sins - Jo Bannister - 201

August - 12 books; 4,382 pages

September
The Blood of Caesar - Albert Bell - 252 pages
A Clubbable Woman - Reginald Hill - 255
In Fury Born - David Weber - 828 pages
Pharmakon - Dirk Wittenborn - 403 pages
The Intention Experiment - Lynn McTaggert - 222
At All Costs - David Weber - 864
Calling Home - Janna McMahan - 307
Written in Blood - Sheila Lowe - 306

September 8 books; 3, 437 pages

October
Exit Lines - Reginald Hill -255 pages
The Blackstone Key - Rose Melikan - 435
Wild Life - Molly Gloss - 255
O'Artful Death - Sarah Stewart - 277
Mesmerized - Gayle Lynds - 451
Dark Celebration - Christine Feehan - 301
The Crystal Skull - Manda Scott - 365
Live Bait - P.J. Tracy - 204
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson - 170
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle - 309
My Lady of Cleves - Margaret Campbell Barnes - 328
The Mindful Woman - Sue Patton - 219
Mansfield Park Revisited - Joan Aiken - 201
The Society of S - Susan Hubbard - 304
In the Woods - Tana French - 429
The Likeness - Tana French - 466
The Poet of Lochness - Brian Jay Corrigan - 302
Dead Run - P.J. Tracy - 324
Snow Blind - P.J. Tracy - 320
Still as Death - Sarah Steward -304

October: 20 books; 6,219 pages

November
March to the Stars - David Weber & John Ringo - 526
Laced - Carol Higgins - 352
How We Choose to Be Happy - Rick Foster & Greg Hicks - 228
The Wasted Vigil - Nadeem Aslam - 320
Blasphemy - Douglas Preston - 416
The Reluctant Widow - Georgette Heyer -316
Brother -James Fredericks - 410
The Book of the Dead - Patricia Cornwell - 511
Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer - 392
Dune - Frank Herbert - 517

November - 10 books; 3,988 pages

December
The Grift - Debra Grinsberg - 329
Still Waters - Nigel McCrery - 275
The Broken Window - Jeffrey Deaver - 414
The Terror - Dan Simmons - 776
Pardonable Lies - Jacqueline Winspear - 352
An Incomplete Revenge - Jacqueline Winspear - 320
Second Hand Smoke - Karen E. Olson - 259
Water Like a Stone - Deborah Crombie - 407
Careless in Red - Elizabeth George - 640
The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd - 332
The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer - 344
Last Post - Robert Barnard - 241
The Keepsake - Tess Gerritsen - 368
On Account of Conspicuous Women - Dawn Shamp - 304
The Mephisto Club - Tess Gerritsen - 448

December: 15 books; 5, 809 pages

------
total pages read: 47,846
total books:142

books by female authors: 90
books by male authors: 52

fiction: 128
nonfiction: 14 (OMG - how sad is that?)

WWI, Shell Shock, and Virgins

I've long had an interest in WWI, probably first engendered by the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (first read and loved when in high school).  

Novels about WWI have only added to that interest, developed it, and inspired further research--so easy to do with the internet when something arouses curiosity.  All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, the first books in the Maisie Dobbs series, Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford series (both deal with WWI), Speller's The Return of Captain John Emmett, Anita Shreve's Stella Bain, R.F. Delderfield's To Serve Them All Their Days, Mike Mignola and Christoper Golden's Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire  (allegorical), and others that I can't recall right now have all covered various aspects of the first World War.

Many of the books above mention shell shock, which I've always equated with PTSD; recently, however, I watched a documentary about shell shock with film footage of WWI victims that exhibited seriously different symptoms, as well as similar ones.  The documentary has footage made by doctors and psychiatrists at the time.  It is heartbreaking and distressing and clearly shows some of the horrors of trench warfare.  

Western Front Casualties
July–December 1916^{[Note 3]}

Month	Casualties
July	196,081
August	75,249
September	115,056
October	66,852
November	46,238
December	13,803
Total British	513,289
French	c. 434,000
Total: Anglo-French	c. 947,289
German	c. 719,000
Grand total	c. 1,666,289

The statistics are dreadful.   The Battle of the Somme (from July 1-November 18, 1916), saw, on the first day, over 57,000 U.K. deaths.  On the first day.  

Add to that the deaths of the Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, French, and German casualties, and it is impossible to imagine the misery and horror that existed after only one day.
A battlefield populated by the dead and dying.

The Western Front Casualties (shown on the right) gives total casualties of the Battle of the Somme that lasted from July to Nov.  Over a million and a half men died, German and Allied.

Among the Allies, the losses of the U.K. are especially dramatic because of its small size. The U.K. (50, 346 sq. miles) is slightly smaller than the state of Louisiana (51,843 sq. miles)--that awareness gives some idea of the devastation to British forces during only one battle.  There were also the battles of Tannenberg, Marnes, Verdun, Arras, Galliopoli, Ypres.... 

I'm always stunned when looking at this kind of statistical information.  Magnify these deaths by the survivors who loved these men.  Then add the physically wounded and those who suffered from shell shock.  Although the problems with shell shock occurred as early as 1914, after the Somme, 35,000 men were diagnosed.  

Both Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were treated for shell shock.  The bitterness is Sassoon's "Survivors" is evident.

32. Survivors 

NO doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again,’—
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed	5
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,—
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter’d all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad. Craiglockart. October, 1917.	10

--------------
Naturally, as I read different articles, I find other aspects that interest me.  Novels often mention the shortage of men in the U.K. after the war, but here is an excerpt from a startling article I found in the Daily Mail:  Condemned to Be Virgins.

They dreamt of love, marriage and children. But, as a new book reveals, the Great War robbed two million women of the men they would have married, leading many into relationships which could only be whispered about...

One hazy morning in 1917 the senior mistress of Bournemouth High School For Girls stood up in front of the assembled sixth form and announced to her hushed audience: 

"I have come to tell you a terrible fact.

"Only one out of ten of you girls can ever hope to marry. This is not a guess of mine. It is a statistical fact.

"Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can.

"The war has made more openings for women than there were before. But there will still be a lot of prejudice. You will have to fight. You will have to struggle."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-481882/Condemned-virgins-The-million-women-robbed-war.html#ixzz3iL7KtHqq
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook


I've added Singled Out,  a nonfiction, historical account to my wishlist.  And a link to some of the best of WWI poetry.
-----------------
What are your favorite WWI books?  Either fact, fiction, or poetry.

Some of 2018 Favorites

Finally managed to decide on a favorite list for the past yer and I'm still not at all sure about it.  Maybe I will pay more attention to favorites each month to make the final selection a little easier.  :)

Favorites for 2018

Circe by Madeline Miller
The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsey Faye
Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
The Exes Revenge by Jo Jakeman
Snap by Belinda Bauer
A Sharp Solitude by Christine Carbo
Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland
Lullaby Road by James Anderson
Censored:  A Literary History of Subversion & Control by Matthew Fellion and Katherine Inglis
And the Fire Came Down by Emma Viskic

Honorable Mention:

Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin
Look for Me by Lisa Gardner
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (read in 2017, but review posted in 2018)
The Hollow of Fear (Lady Sherlock #3) by Sherry Thomas
Salt Lane by William Shaw
The Last of the Stansfields by Marc Levy
Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths 

and several books by Kerry Wilkinson, Joy Ellis, Anne Bishop, Kelly Armstrong; authors who always fall in my favorite lists

-----------------
For all readers of novels this tweet should prove interesting.  I mean, who hasn't read a book with a cemetery setting and a mysterious figure in black, standing at a distance?

Even funnier--all the responses and suggestions.  I cracked up when Neil Gaiman got in on this, wondering if he should put it in his will or pay in advance.  :)