Review: Let the illusion unfold!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2014
The late Victorian period has always had a great appeal  for me with its moral contradictions and double standards and add to that some illusions, spiritualists, seances and ghosts and you've got me. And I was most definitely not disappointed and read the book in two evenings!!The main character is Kate, a fourteen year old who has recently lost both her parents. She's now living with her baby sister with their guardian and is a lonely child, still very much confused by what happened to her father and more recently her mother.  Kate's mother was a believer in spritualism and explained to Kate that it was possible to talk to the spirits of the dead. Kate is of a somewhat more practical frame of mind, but given her circumstances is desperate to find out more about her mother's death and more specifically the meaning of the letter found in her music box, which she believes is from her mother and further adds mystery by exhorting her to 'trust nobody'.From this point we follow Kate as she tries to come to grips with her increasingly confusing circumstances and the characters in drama - the distant and controlling guardian, the doctor who runs the sanitorium, Cecilia the medium, Mina the artist and significantly, the Ghost Club. This is a group of boys who are paid by mediums to enhance the seance experience and give the punters their money's worth! Tom, the 'leader ' of the group is taken with Kate from the first moment when he saves her from the repulsive and dangerous 'ragged man'. Their relationship evolves with each striving to convince the other that their view of things is the right one - Tom finding it hard to explain his emotions behind his beliefs and Kate struggles with allowing rational logic into her maelstrom of conflicting emotions.The plot unfolds layer by layer, skillfully revealed by the author with a masterful hand leading to a dramatic but satisfying end. This is an excellent novel which I would heartily recommend both for the skill of the author and the intriguing plot. When's the next one coming Mr. Fenton?