Hayes tells the story of two real-life pioneering feminists in late 19th-century America in this debut historical novel.

In 1868 New York City, the Claflin sisters are fraudulent mediums at the height of the Spiritualist movement—a time when the public is desperate for contact with deceased loved ones. However, the pair has bigger plans. For example, Tennessee Claflin—who pretends to be a half-naked ghost during a seance—would much rather work as a stockbroker. Their parents, who are longtime con artists themselves, beg for the sisters to perform one last ruse: a magical and sensuous “healing” regimen on a wealthy mark. The target: Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest men in America. Tennessee succeeds in becoming Vanderbilt’s lover, which grants her access to the upper echelons of wealthy New York society. Her married older sibling, Victoria Woodhull, has plans of her own; after adopting the philosophy of “Social Freedom”—which rejects both marriage and religion—the increasingly political Victoria plans to be the first female candidate for the presidency of the United States. To do so, she’ll need to win the support of members of the growing women’s suffrage movement. But when the sisters’ family brings a case against Victoria’s husband, the siblings’ futures are thrown into jeopardy. Hayes’ prose successfully evokes the elegant language of the era in which it’s set, even when discussing the secret and the unpleasant, as when Tennessee notes that “she can only assume that what has plagued her is indeed the French disease. Scars of Venus, courtesy of a devil who gave her the scaling which crawls across her hips, down her inner thigh with an itch, something fierce.” The book is based on a true story, and Hayes writes with such care and authenticity that the reader will likely be unsure where the history ends and the fiction begins. There are a few places where the narrative becomes a bit overcrowded, but for the most part, the author delivers a novel that presents a lifelike portrait of two remarkable (and remarkably modern) women, and an immersive dive into a colorful era’s scammers, activists, and elites.

An informative and engaging tale of shifting morals in the Victorian era.