Crime writer Larson’s (
The Devil in the White City) first foray into fiction is a historical ghost story available only on audio. In 1905, psychologist William James leads an expedition to the remote North Atlantic Isle of Dorn. James and his Society for Psychical Research are looking for the cause of the island’s unexplained disappearances, including a family who might have been lost in a storm, murdered by bandits, or perhaps abducted by some supernatural force. James is based on the real-life “father of American psychology”; the expedition’s other members are Larson’s own creations, but grounded in historical research. There’s Nathaniel Hume (fictional son of the real-life psychic D. D. Hume); Winter, a professional illusionist; Katherine Holbrook, who claims to have met her husband’s ghost; and wireless telegraphist Josiah Frost. Unimaginable things happen on the island (the expedition’s boat disappears; a blazing fire is mysteriously snuffed; strange tides roil the cove; an expedition member appears in two places simultaneously; a boy and a man in 18th-century dress wash ashore; otherworldly creatures hide in the grasses) as the expedition tries to explain the inexplicable. Julian Rhind-Tutt masterfully narrates and navigates the British and American accents.
VERDICT A fine ghost story steeped in Victorian morality and mannerisms.
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