The Clairvoyant Curse

Book 4 in a series of chronological stand-alone plots.

England 1899. Dr Watson and Countess Volodymyrovna travel on the SS Pleiades during its inaugural voyage through the Irish Sea from Glasgow to Biarritz. On board are a bizarre handful of passengers travelling to a World Spiritualist Congress. When Madame Moghra (the most famous medium in all of Britain) is found dead and Dr Watson is accused of homicidal somnambulism Countess V must unmask the real killer in order to spare her fellow sleuth being charged with murder once they reach the French port.

Everyone becomes a suspect: Monsieur Croquemort and Mr Crispin Ffrench, who perform in the same Magic Lantern Show as the famous medium. Dr Hu the Chinese Feng Shui master. Mrs Merle the American astrologer. Madame Sosostras the Hungarian tarot card reader. Reverend Blackadder the Theosophist, and last but not least, his ethereal niece, Miss Morningstar. Each character has a motive for killing the medium, but it was Dr Watson who most fervently wished her dead.

Obfuscation is thicker than the fog over the Irish Sea, and she has only one day in which to do it. Can Countess V separate the true grains of wheat from the airy-fairy chaff?