I'm having an absolute blast with the books of Jaime Jo Wright, which are a combination of gothic, mystery, period drama and romantic suspense. This is my third of them, following 'The Vanishing at Castle Moreau' and 'The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater', but I believe it's her eleventh, each of which has an evocative title and, at least with the ones that I've read, a consistent approach. They tend to tell two stories in alternating fashion that unfold in the same physical location but in very different eras—one historical, the other contemporary—and those two stories, which unfold with many parallels, eventually combine into one. This is no different, although the two stories aren't quite as linked as they might seem this time out.

We're in Shepherd, Iowa at 322 Predicament Avenue. In 1901, it's a mysterious house that's owned by the Oppermans who don't live there for reasons of local politics. Who does live there is quite a mystery and there are a disappearances. It's clearly a gothic monster of a house, with a cemetery behind it, and it's become a town tradition for children to dare each other to go there. One such is Effie James, daughter of bank president Carlton James, who goes there with her impulsive young sister Polly, who's on the porch when she hears a scream and is promptly traumatised by what she sees through a window.

In the present day, it's a bed and breakfast, which Norah Richman has recently inherited from her aunt. Why she continues to live there, we're not sure, because her sister Naomi died there twelve years earlier, only the second murder in the town after the one in 1901, naturally both of them at 322 Predicament Avenue, which is equally naturally considered haunted. Soon into these chapters, a guest dies of natural causes, but his wife talks about apparitions. Maybe Mr. Miller was killed by the Ghost of Shepherd, Isabelle Addington, who was presumably murdered there in 1901, even though nobody ever found a body.

In both stories, our female leads have an obvious romantic interest who isn't local but has come to town with regard to the deaths. In 1901, it's Mr. Lewis Anderson of New York, who claims to be the husband of Isabelle Addington, who he is convinced has been murdered there, even if the only one who might confirm that is Polly James, who isn't well enough to talk. In the present day, it's British true crime podcaster Sebastian Blaine, who's there to cover the Isabelle Addington murder for his show, 'Cold, Dead But Never Buried'.

Of course, as different as these characters are, they team up because of course they do. Effie is an entirely capable young lady who bristles at the restrictions that come with being the daughter of a bank manager in 1901. She thrives investigating a potential murder with a strange man, even if so doing scandalises her community. Norah is still traumatised by her sister's murder and is as lost and flustered as her guest is infuriatingly calm.

I love how well Wright both parallels and contrasts her periods. So many details echo from one to the other, occasionally to the degree that they segue effortlessly from one era to the next in what we could consider a visual manner. For instance, the opening chapter ends with Polly on the porch of 322 Predicament Avenue witness to a scream, but the next chapter opens a century and change later with another scream, issued in the very same building. This is the sort of thing that graphic novels do so well and it's rare to see it done this capably in prose.

Wright also changes her language to fit the period, so the 1901 chapters are written in a far more elegant and proper style than the loose and informal contemporary ones. Everyone in 1901 has to abide by the rigid etiquette of society and Wright seems to enjoy adopting (and flouting) that in her choice of prose. Nobody in the present day has to worry about that, so she frees up her words and phrasing. She also has fun being with hyperbole, especially in conjunction with the podcast. I adored how "Norah felt the skeletal claws of history snatching at her ankles, stealing her breath away." That's not Blaine speaking on his podcast but it easily could be.

Where this book differs from the previous couple of Wright novels that I've read is in how closely the two periods connect. It certainly seems from the outset that the reason for the one murder is going to be the reason for the other, echoing what those prior books did. However, Wright varies her formula enough for her to be recognisably consistent in approach without telling the same story over and over again. In fact, I appreciated the parallels here even more in this book, even though they're not all entirely honest.

The more I read Wright, the more I want to pick up her first eight books to analyse how the similar thematic approaches she takes have evolved over time. It seems unfair to focus on the structure of her work when she tells such vivid stories, but I'm a writer as well as a reader and I find this all fascinating. Most readers are going to focus more on what she writes and there are a lot of clever touches this time out on that front, especially in the 1901 chapters.

For instance, I appreciated Effie's scandalous flirting of etiquette immensely, but also how inept the local police force are when it comes to crime scene investigation. Not only do they not find an actual body, but they fail to locate the actual murder scene. It takes Anderson and Effie to locate the blood spatter from the murder and also to discover the actual murder weapon. If Wright had written that in the present day, we'd laugh at how unbelievable it was, but it's believable in 1901 Shepherd and that informs how the investigation stumbles.

There's less to praise in the contemporary chapters, but I liked the way that society still considers a lot more than it should. The police never solved Naomi's murder but they did have a prominent suspect, her boyfriend, who they couldn't pin a thing on. However, the public never forgot and he doesn't have the best of it with that hanging over his head. Sebastian's daughter Harper arrives unexpectedly in the midst of all that's going on and it's telling that she's nineteen, the same age that Naomi was when she was murdered.

As always, there's a lot here to enjoy and I'll wrap up by praising the structure again. What it does is effectively give us two stories for the price of one, three if you count the way Wright weaves the two together. She's relatively prolific, given that she's knocked at least one book each year since 2017 and often two. I'm looking forward to the next one already. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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