The White Cro A Beacon Hill Mystery [Paperback]

When the lights come on after a séance in the parlor of Victorian Boston’s most celebrated spiritualist, a pillar of the community lies dead. The world of restless and vengeful spirits has invaded Beacon Hill--while Caroline Ames, seated next to the victim, may hold the key to an all-too-real crime.

From the mysterious device called the telephone to the new electric conveyances that cross the Charles, a tide of change is rising around Caroline, her brother, Addington, and their boarder, Dr. MacKenzie. For Caroline, it has been a time to face her loneliness--and the growing affection she feels for Dr. MacKenzie. For Addington, it is a time marked by the fierce, ineffable pull of a beautiful but dangerous woman. Now they find themselves in the center of a maelstrom, at the heart of a case of multiple murder. And while a killer has already claimed two victims, a clairvoyant has revealed the third: “Ames next . . .”“How can you resist a story that combines seances, Victorian scandal, and the Barnum & Bailey Circus? A genteel adventure that offers readers suspense, romance, and an intriguing blend of factual and fictional characters...Highly enjoyable.”
--The Washington Post

“A riveting tale of murder and intrigue.”
--Forecast

CYNTHIA PEALEis the pseudonym of Nancy Zaroulis, author ofCall the Darkness LightandThe Last Waltz, among other successful novels. She has written two previous Beacon Hill mysteries,The Death of Colonel MannandMurder at Bertram’s Bower. She lives outside Boston.Chapter 1

In a darkened room in a house on Lime Street, on the flat of Beacon Hill, Caroline Ames sat at a table clasping the hand of her friend, Dr. John Alexander MacKenzie, and tried to speak to her mother, who had been dead for a year and a half.

There were six other querants in the room. The medium, Mrs. Evangeline Sidgwick, was in deep traló!