Other Worlds
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
One foggy evening, the most famous crime specialists in the world meet in an exclusive club, their minds on murder. On the agenda: two tantalizing, unsolved cases of ghostly terror. New York Times bestselling author and unsurpassed master of suspense Barbara Michaels delivers a fireside story in the grand tradition with her latest work, Other Worlds. The smoky room glows with a mix of cigars, brandy, and genius. Those present include Harry Houdini, king of illusion; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, father of the modern detective novel; Dr. Nandor Fodor, a psychoanalyst of international acclaim; and an elegant writer who can rival them all with her sleuthing talent. These masters of mystery put their minds to a pair of gripping stories of families beset by poltergeistly pranks and bewitched by inexplicable horrors. Gripping puzzles, yes, but the terror is all too vicious and all too real. In the hollows of Tennessee, a family is threatened by a dire spirit whose predictions of despair and death come frighteningly true. In a small Connecticut town, a newly married widow and her children move into her second husband's home to find their lives possessed by an unimaginable demon.For the gathering at the club, a brilliant battle of wits is at hand. Were these villains phantoms from beyond or evildoers of flesh and blood? Each expert has a theory. Which of them is correct? Whether writing as Barbara Michaels or Elizabeth Peters, this author is a master chef crafting richly atmospheric, suspense-filled delights. Other Worlds is an up-all-nighter guaranteed to still haunt in the morning, a tale as chilling by daylight as it is by darkness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an unusual blend of mystery, suspense and the occult, veteran suspense novelist Michaels (The Dancing Floor, etc.) recounts two classic American ghost stories: the Bell Witch of Tennessee and the Phelps haunting of Connecticut. A unique mix of historical and fictitious crime experts with an avid interest in spiritualism (and fakery)--among them Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and a mysterious woman who may be the author herself--gathers over the course of two evenings to hear of the two legends, sift evidence and render judgment. As retold here, both hauntings boasted various manifestations, from frivolous to life threatening, over a period of many years--the Bell Witch in the early 19th century and the Phelps case in the 1850s. Both were observed and investigated by a number of persons outside the families that played host to the unwelcome poltergeists, and both had disastrous consequences for those families. This novel isn't a mystery by any strict standard, but Michaels's fans won't care, as the telling is adept, suspenseful and appropriately spooky. Most readers are likely to echo Houdini's opinion that the replay of the hauntings, though still shrouded in ambiguity, makes for "an entertaining evening."
