Now the Harvard educated Addington spends his time at his club and gymnasium and mooning after a lovely but quite unsuitable actress. His sister does charity work and has tea with the socially acceptable and wishes their boarder, Dr. MacKenzie, would notice her attraction to him. The good doctor has a small pension from the army for being wounded in battle yet continues to recuperate slowly making no attempt to establish a practice. He wishes Caroline would notice him.

A spark of brightness enters their world when Caroline attends a séance against her brother’s wishes hoping to contact their deceased mother. As she and the doctor sit with others in a darkened room listening to the spirit guide, one of the members of the circle is brutally murdered. Addington is more upset that his sister is involved with this unsavory activity than he is that a poor soul is dead. Séances are not for their sort of people he proclaims. Her attendance brings her to the attention of a suspicious policeman who accuses her partially because he senses her distaste for him.

The story itself is rather mundane with vast stretches of incredulity needed to believe it. There are frequent references to previous books in the series; a tactic designed to make the reader race out to complete the series but which falls flat in this case as none of the characters is particularly captivating; indeed they seem to adopt the ennui which makes up their lives. I wish Caroline could meet Dianne Day’s Fremont Jones who is also a member of the right set but eschewed that life to set out for California. No wonder Thoreau went to live in woods of Walden!

The action and clues come thick and fast in the last few pages with a daring rescue and the utility of that new fangled invention, the telephone, is proved to the doubting Addington. He needs to quit worrying about what is acceptable to the elite of Boston and start putting his education and athletic ability to use where it can improve the world and this series.

The author does an excellent job in presenting life in this period especially in researching the introduction of the telephone to the city. William James appears as a mentor to Addington who seeks his advice on psychics. James is quite believable, no doubt since he was a historical figure. Too bad setting overshadows plot and character in this book.

--Jane Davis