Seduction

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugos beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus — and even the Devil himself. Hugos transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed. Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac LEtoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey — where Hugo conducted the séances — hoping to uncover a secret about the islands Celtic roots. But the man whos invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes shell help him discover something quite different — Hugos lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher. What follows is an intricately plotted and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, by one of Americas most gifted and imaginative novelists.