The Haunted Martyr

Book excerpt: The expat author travels to Italy, where communing with the dead can lead to murder, in this historical mystery by the author of The Second Woman. England in the chilly winter of 1902 is captive to a new craze: Mediums and psychics are springing up like toadstools after a rainstorm, and the public is rushing to consult them, thirsty for intimations of the Great Beyond. It’s no surprise that a man like Denton has his doubts: An American Yankee in King Edward's city, he is a walking representative of the “Show Me” state. Nevertheless, Denton agreed to write a book about ghosts and hauntings, and has taken himself to Italy to do it. Napoli may be bella, but it offers Denton only boredom and frustration, until a dead body shows up to make life interesting. As he tries to divine the killer’s identity, the cold hard clues give him a new angle on his new spiritualist friends.