A Dreadful Splendor

YA author Myers (the Nefertari Hughes mystery series) makes her adult debut with an intriguing whodunit set in 1852. Genevieve Timmons, a fake spiritualist who robs the wealthy of their jewels, is making a hasty exit from a séance she had just conducted in a London house when the police arrest her. Soon after Genevieve is imprisoned on charges of theft and murder, she’s bailed out by a lawyer named Lockhart, who represents Lord Chadwick. Genevieve’s release is conditioned on her agreeing to travel to the nobleman’s coastal home. Six months earlier, the body of Chadwick’s bride, Audra, was found washed ashore, but the heartbroken widower refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide. Lockhart promises to defend Genevieve if she’ll use her “talents and trickery” to perform a séance in which she claims to communicate with Audra’s ghost and gives Chadwick “the closure he craves and end his suffering.” Chadwick, in turn, hopes the séance will elicit a murder confession from one of the attendees. Genevieve agrees, only to find herself feeling like “a cog” in her clients’ schemes, even as she tries to maintain her facade as a medium while searching for the truth about Audra’s death. Myers nicely couples an unlikely and unethical sleuth with an atmospheric puzzle. Fans of roguish investigators will be delighted. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Aug.)