Conjure Wife

At Hempnell College, Norman Saylor, an ethnologist devoted to superstition, begins as a rational man in a comfortable faculty home and ends by confronting a hidden world of charms, curses, and dangerous human wishes. His curiosity leads him into wife Tansy's dressing room, where graveyard dirt, hair, nail clippings, herbs, iron, silver, and other ritual materials reveal a private system of folk magic labeled for specific people and outcomes. Tansy confesses that her conjure began as fearful protection for Norman's career and safety, but grew into a secret habit of influence she could not abandon. Norman answers with science and skepticism, yet the emotional truth is undeniable. When Tansy destroys her charms, Norman believes the spell is broken—until a concealed packet sparks an eerie reaction and campus tensions erupt. A student accuses him of sabotage, rumors spread, and his lectures and private life alike become precarious. At a warm, unsettling evening gathering, drink and fear blur into a fever dream in which Norman sees magic everywhere. He wakes to apparent normality, only to find Tansy missing and a frantic note behind, suggesting she has taken the curse upon herself in a desperate act of love. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.