The London Séance Society: A Novel

Written by Sarah Penner in 2023, The London Séance Society: A Novel is a historical murder mystery with a tinge of the supernatural. Taking place in 1873, the novel focuses on Lenna Wickes, a science-minded woman who is investigating the death of her younger sister by becoming an apprentice to Vaudeline D’Allaire, the spiritualist medium with whom her sister Evie also apprenticed. Lenna’s investigation leads her into the heart of the London Séance Society, a group that purports to perform reputable séances for grieving people, often widows who have lost their husbands. As Lenna learns more about Evie’s connections to the Society, she begins to uncover the Society’s dark history and the truth of her sister’s murder.

The London Séance Society is Penner’s second novel. Her first, The Lost Apothecary, tells the story of a woman who sells poisons to other women who are victimized by the men in their lives. Like The Lost Apothecary, The London Séance Society uses its historical setting to shed light on the questions of power, oppression, and community that contemporary women face.

This guide refers to the Park Row Books 2023 hardcover edition of The London Séance Society.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide include descriptions of sexism and misogynistic language, along with descriptions of murder, bodily injury, and attempted sexual assault.

Plot Summary

Lenna Wickes is investigating the mysterious death of her younger sister, Evie, when the trail leads her to the London Séance Society, an all-male collective with which Evie was connected. The novel has a braided structure, alternating between chapters from Lenna’s point of view and chapters from the perspective of Mr. Morely, the head of the Society’s Department of Spiritualism, who is coping with the unexpected loss of the Society’s president, Mr. Volckman.

As the novel opens, Lenna and Vaudeline D’Allaire, the medium with whom she is apprenticing, are performing a séance on the outskirts of Paris. Lenna does not believe in ghosts, but she is determined to learn about séances because Evie was an ardent believer and was apprenticed to Vaudeline before her death. Vaudeline specializes in contacting the spirits of those who died under mysterious circumstances. To do this, Vaudeline must perform the séance at the scene of the person’s death. Before the séance begins, a messenger brings Vaudeline news that Mr. Volckman, the president of the London Séance Society, has been found murdered. Her assistance is required to solve the case. Vaudeline used to be connected to the Society but left London for reasons unknown to Lenna. The letter was sent by Mr. Morely, the head of the Society’s Department of Spiritualism, who was a close friend of Volckman’s. Unbeknownst to Lenna and Vaudeline, Morely’s narration reveals that he also met Evie in the months before her death. Morely and Evie struck up a relationship, and Morely offered answers to Evie’s questions about spiritualism and the Society in exchange for spending time together.

Vaudeline suggests that Lenna accompany her to London to perform the séance. This irritates Lenna; although she is apprenticed to Vaudeline and hopes to see concrete evidence of ghosts, she has no wish to constantly disrupt her life. Vaudeline tries to comfort Lenna by holding her hand, but this only leads Lenna to wonder if Vaudeline is romantically interested in her. Lenna used to be secretly romantically involved with a woman named Eloise Heslop, but Eloise and her father were killed in an accident. At the time, the Society performed an unsuccessful séance to get answers about the Heslops’ deaths, but the only tangible result was that the Heslop widow eventually married Mr. Cleland, one of the Society’s members.

After wrestling with her own feelings of lust for Vaudeline, Lenna decides to accompany her to London. On the way, they discuss the items that Lenna found among Evie’s belongings after her death, many of which were used by fraudulent mediums. Vaudeline tells Lenna that she left London and the Society because Volckman became aware of fraudulent mediums operating within the Society and warned her that investigating such mediums would potentially endanger Vaudeline. Vaudeline now insists that Lenna step away from the case and leave Vaudeline to conduct the investigation alone. However, when the two women meet Morely, Lenna realizes that he is wearing a hat that once belonged to Evie, and she insists on accompanying Vaudeline to uncover the connection between Morely and her sister.

When they arrive at the Society, Morely introduces them to Constable Beck, a Society member who is also on the Metropolitan Police Force. Beck has been tasked with protecting the women while they are in London. For the séance, Vaudeline insists on having access to everything that Volckman might have touched on the day he died. Morely shows them the Society’s visitor log, which Volckman would have signed, and Lenna is shocked to see Evie’s initials there. Later that night, Lenna and Vaudeline are restricted to their room for the evening because women aren’t allowed inside the Society. Vaudeline sexually propositions Lenna, and although Lenna wants to have sex with her, she instead opts to leave the room to investigate the log book on her own. Lenna discovers that Evie entered the Society and also attended a series of lectures about fraudulent practices that mediums might employ. This causes Lenna to question whether Evie’s commitment to spiritualism was genuine.

Morely’s narration reveals that he allowed Evie access to the Society’s library and resources in exchange for sexual favors. Despite his attempts to traditionally court her, Morely never convinced Evie to consent to a romantic relationship. Instead, she used his desire for sexual favors to get him to agree to let her attend a Society-led séance—something that no woman had ever been allowed to see.

The next morning, Morely and Beck accompany Evie and Vaudeline to the house of Mrs. Gray, a widow for whom the Society performed a séance that Volckman attended on the day of his death. Mrs. Gray seems mistrustful of the Society members at first, calling them frauds, but her fears are assuaged when Vaudeline proves herself to be an authentic medium. Now trusting Vaudeline and Lenna, Mrs. Gray reveals that Mr. Dankwork—the Society medium who performed the séance—tried to sexually assault her afterward, but was caught by Volckman. (Dankwork is also the same medium who performed the Heslops’ séance.) Mrs. Gray also confirms that a woman matching Evie’s description was associated with the Society.

After leaving Mrs. Gray’s, the group visits Volckman’s widow to console her. Volckman’s widow tells Lenna and Vaudeline that the Society members never offered their condolences or investigated her husband’s death, despite what Beck told them earlier. Lenna and Vaudeline visit a brothel that was listed in the logbook as being the site of a Society séance. In speaking with the sex workers, Lenna discovers that Morely led the fraudulent séance himself. The sex worker tells Lenna that Evie was involved.

Morely’s narration confirms that he is the ringleader of the fraudulent mediums within the Society. When Volckman came to him with suspicions of malpractice within the Society, Morely hatched a plan to use Evie to shore up his department’s credibility. Evie would attend séances, spread rumors of the Society’s good repute, and console the grieving.

On the ride back to the Society, Lenna finally reveals her identity to Morely, but he denies having known Evie. Later, the carriage driver gives Lenna a note, warning her that Morely is lying. With only a few hours left before Volckman’s séance, Lenna and Vaudeline convene in the Society’s library, but Morely traps them inside.

When he comes to fetch them for the séance, the women try to overpower him, but Lenna fails to knock him fully unconscious, so according to the women’s previously agreed plan, Lenna locks the injured Morely into the library with Vaudeline. However, rather than escaping the Society building entirely, as Vaudeline told her to, Lenna goes upstairs to the carriage driver’s room. The driver tells her that he knew Evie and got the driving job because of her. He also tells her that he was with Morely on the night that Volckman was killed at a party that Morely hosted. Evie was also at that party, and Lenna realizes that Evie was killed that night. Searching Morely’s study for clues, Lenna finds Evie’s notebook in a secret drawer and learns that her sister formed a relationship with Morely to gain access to the Society and write an exposé about the institution’s malpractice. Evie wrote to Vaudeline about her findings, and Vaudeline encouraged Evie to investigate the very gathering at which she was killed. Lenna is horrified by Vaudeline’s betrayal.

Lenna also finds a burgundy folio in the desk, which contains a list of all of the people for whom the Society performed séances. Some of these people appear to have been targeted by the Society and possibly even killed by Society members. Lenna also finds a list of “oathmen”—Society members like Mr. Cleland who are married off to grieving widows so that they can funnel the widows’ funds back to the Society. Lenna deduces that Morely intends to kill her and Vaudeline at tonight’s séance.

Morely, having escaped the library, bursts into the room with Vaudeline close behind. Lenna questions Vaudeline about encouraging Evie to attend the event at which she died, but Vaudeline denies having sent that letter. Morely procures a gun and forces Lenna and Vaudeline to the carriage, where they meet Beck. Beck appears distressed by the suddenly violent turn of events but still accompanies them to the wine cellar where Volckman’s body was found. As they begin the séance, Morely’s narration reveals that he has attached a slow-burning fuse to a barrel of gunpowder. It will go off in 34 minutes, and he plans to escape, leaving the others to die. When Vaudeline summons the spirits, Lenna is possessed by Evie’s spirit. Vaudeline expels the spirit from Lenna’s body, but Lenna is left confused by the knowledge that Evie not only died on the same night as Volckman, but in exactly the same place. Vaudeline, overcome with the effort of bringing spirits to the room, asks Lenna to proceed with the séance. Lenna expels all but two spirits from the room: Evie’s and Volckman’s. Evie’s spirit enters Lenna, and Volckman’s possesses Vaudeline’s.

Lenna accesses Evie’s memories and realizes that Morely intercepted Evie’s letter to Vaudeline and forged a reply. Lenna also sees what happened on the night of Evie’s death. Evie came to Morely’s party, thinking that Vaudeline had instructed her to do so. As she searched the wine cellar, she discovered a smaller vermouth cellar. Volckman caught her snooping, and when she tried to explain herself, she discovered that Volckman had been in league with Morely all along. Volckman was the mastermind behind the Society’s malfeasance. He was also the one who would murder rich men—including Eloise Heslop’s father—so that the Society could perform séances for their widows and insert their members into the widows’ lives. Volckman attacked Evie with a knife, but she bludgeoned him with a vermouth bottle. They died together, and Morely found their bodies. He then smuggled Evie’s body to the garden, where she was later found, before returning to the party and pretending to discover Volckman’s body.

When Lenna and Vaudeline confront Morely with the truth of what happened to Evie and Volckman, Beck is horrified. As Beck and Morely argue, Lenna sees the barrel of gunpowder and realizes Morely’s deadly plan. Lenna expels the spirits of Volckman and Evie from herself and Vaudeline. Evie’s spirit attacks Morely, giving Beck, Lenna, and Vaudeline time to escape. Morely is killed in the explosion. Lenna performs another séance that summons the spirits of Evie, Volckman, and the newly dead Morely. She frees Evie but keeps Volckman and Morely’s spirits in a state of permanent limbo, never allowing them to return to the spirit realm. later, Lenna returns to Paris with Vaudeline. They begin a romantic relationship, and Lenna completes Evie’s exposé.