Book
Portrait of Peril
First published 2021
London, October 1890. Sarah Bain’s wedding to Detective Sergeant Barrett is interrupted when the body of spirit photographer Charles Firth is discovered in the church crypt. One of Firth’s plates appears to show a pale figure attacking him, encouraging claims that a ghost committed the crime.
Sarah’s sceptical investigation enters the city’s spiritualist circles, where mediums, scientists, debunkers and wealthy believers compete for authority. A second death during a ghost hunt widens the suspect list, while the return of Sarah’s long-missing father revives an unresolved murder from her childhood. Fraudulent images and family memory become equally difficult to expose.
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Victorian Spiritualism and Psychical Culture
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More from this period
5 more top-rated novels about Victorian Crime
Ranked by rating and voting volume; books already shown on this page are omitted.
More by the author
Other books by Laura Joh Rowland
Discover more
Authors similar to Laura Joh Rowland
Recommended from shared genres and periods.
Evelyn James
55 books
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
24 books
David Field
46 books
Rhys Bowen
53 books