The London Séance Society: A Novel

Lenna is initially confused as to how Evie’s ghost was able to possess her at all, since ghosts are only active in the place of their death. Lenna deduces that Evie must have died in this place just as Volckman did, and her body must have been moved after the fact. Vaudeline encourages Lenna to perform the incantation that will dispel all ghosts from the room except for Volckman’s. Lenna does, but she changes the ending of the incantation to allow both Evie’s and Volckman’s ghosts to remain. Lenna is immediately possessed by Evie’s ghost, and Vaudeline by Volckman’s. Lenna begins to experience Evie’s memories; Evie confirms that she did indeed die in this room. Lenna interrogates Vaudeline about why she wrote the letter that sent Evie to this room, but Vaudeline denies writing this letter. With Evie’s memories now accessible, Lenna deduces that Morely must have intercepted Evie’s letter and forged a false response. Meanwhile, Beck is confused and does not know who “Evie” is, while Morely seems suddenly distraught by the smell of sulfur in the room. Morely steps away from the séance.

Morely realizes that the fuse to the barrel of gunpowder has extinguished. He reignites it and can now only guess when the explosion will detonate.

Lenna realizes that Morely is up to something, but she can’t figure out what. She gives herself over entirely to Evie, who takes Lenna back to the memory of what happened on the night of the murder. On that night, Evie followed instructions that she assumed to be Vaudeline’s and infiltrated the party in the wine cellar to search for Morely’s burgundy folio. She eventually made her way down to a smaller cellar beneath the wine cellar, where vermouth was kept. Volckman caught her snooping, and she explained that she was associated with Vaudeline. However, this plan backfires and turns Volckman against her. He tells her, “Vaudeline was a friend once… Until she started meddling” (290).

Morely reflects on the day when all of the Society’s troubles first started. On that day, Volckman, who was always aware of the Society’s malfeasance, began to suspect that Vaudeline would eventually uncover their wrongdoing. Knowing that Vaudeline did not suspect him of being the root of the malfeasance, Volckman told her to leave the Society for her own safety, and she did. Morely’s narration reveals that Volckman was the one who committed murders for the Society’s benefit.

Evie shows Lenna how she died in the vermouth cellar. When Volckman confronted Evie, she explained that she had infiltrated the Society by using Morely. She also admitted what she had already deduced about the Society’s scheme of killing rich men and manipulating their widows into marrying Society members. At this point, Volckman began to strangle Evie, and she hit him with a bottle of vermouth, knocking him down. Before she could escape, Volckman slashed her neck with a knife, and they both died together.

Now, when Lenna comes out of the “trance” of Evie’s memories, she accuses Morely of witnessing the aftermath of the events in the vermouth cellar and transporting Evie’s body to where it was eventually found. Morely initially denies this—largely because Beck, who doesn’t know the extent of Morely’s wrongdoing, is sitting beside him—but Vaudeline, who is still possessed by Volckman’s ghost, confirms that Lenna’s accusations are true. As Beck and Morely argue, Lenna finally notices the fuse leading to the barrel of gunpowder. She looks to Vaudeline to end the séance and help everyone to leave the room, but she realizes that Vaudeline is too overcome by the possession of Volckman’s ghost to be of any help.

Morely reflects that he attended the party in the wine cellar in the hopes of finally catching Evie amidst her subterfuge. Instead, he found her body and his boss’s body in the vermouth cellar. Thinking quickly, he stashed Evie’s body in a wine cask and took it out to the garden, where it was eventually found. He then returned to the party, went back to the cellar, and screamed as if discovering Volckman’s body for the first time.

Lenna performs the incantation to dispel Evie’s and Volckman’s ghosts from her own and Vaudeline’s bodies. Lenna, Vaudeline, and Beck escape, but Morely, who is plagued by Evie’s ghost, is trapped inside the cellar, which explodes. Lenna and Vaudeline passionately kiss in the rubble, and Lenna returns to the site of Morely’s death to perform a final séance.

When Lenna performed the incantation to end the séance and release the spirits back to their realm, she did not allow Morely’s spirit or Volckman’s to leave. Now, they remain trapped in an in-between place. They are kept separate from the love of the spirit realm but cannot impact the world of the living.

In the days after the explosion, Lenna and Vaudeline provide statements to the police about uncovering the Society’s wrongdoings. Lenna later declines an offer to work as a geologist at a British museum. She instead opts to live with Vaudeline in Paris and to pursue her study of mediumship. She also uses her findings to complete Evie’s exposé.