HAZARDOUS SPIRITS

A middle-class Scottish couple dives into Spiritualism surrounded by the bohemian Bright Young Things.

After the national trauma of the Great War, and the even greater personal trauma of the death of her beloved older sister, Dolores, Evelyn Hazard dreams of being nothing more than a normal middle-class housewife. But her husband, Robert, who still feels guilty that his weak heart exempted him from fighting, has other ideas. He’s been contacted by the spirit world and is determined to refine his “gift” at Edinburgh’s local Spiritualist Library and Psychical Research Centre. Despite Evelyn’s objections, soon Robert isn’t merely a patron of the library but a medium himself, conducting séances to speak to the dead. Before long, Robert and Evelyn are touring the country alongside a psychic child prodigy and socializing with aristocrats and military heroes—a life that seems even better than being normal, as long as Evelyn doesn’t think too hard about whether or not Robert really is “gifted.” As juicy as the concept and setting of this novel may be, Salam’s failure to persuasively depict this historical moment is a problem. Spiritualism was hugely popular in Great Britain in the 1920s, for instance, which makes Evelyn’s abject horror at the thought of Robert expressing interest in the practice ring false. Salam’s vision of gender and marriage at this time is equally muddled. Evelyn imagines divorcing Robert after his foray into spiritualism, wondering, “Was this the sort of thing one divorced over?” In reality, divorces were rare, and only granted in cases of adultery and abandonment. These lapses might make more sense if the characters were more idiosyncratically drawn; instead, they lack depth and are burdened with confusing backstories that are never fully explained.

A historical novel that skimps on history.