Title: The Spirit Circle
Author: Tara Calaby
Publisher: Text Publishing
Genre: General Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBTQIAP+
Release Date: 7th January 2025
BLURB
For Ellen Whitfield, the betrothal of her dear friend Harriet to Ellen’s brother has brought both loss and solace. But when Harriet suddenly breaks off the engagement, ostensibly at the insistence of her deceased mother, Ellen is bewildered. And when she learns that Harriet is involved with a spiritualist group led by the charismatic Caroline McLeod, she fears losing her friend altogether.
So it is that practical, sceptical Ellen moves into the gloomy East Melbourne mansion where Caroline, along with her enigmatic daughter Grace, has assembled a motley court of the bereaved. Ellen’s intention is to expose the simple trickery—the hidden cabinets and rigged seances, the levers and wires—that must surely lie behind these visits from the departed.
What she discovers is altogether more complicated.
REVIEW
It was the cover of The Spirit Circle that first caught my attention, the deep blue background with the candles and flowers all of which feature in the book. Then once I read the blurb, I knew I wanted to read the book! I do find the spirit world, and things like tarot readers fascinating.
The book is set in East Melbourne Australia and the central characters are William Whitfield, Ellen Whitfield and Harriet Kirk. William lives with his spinster sister Ellen Whitfield. Harriet Kirk, Ellen’s friend lives alone, nearby the Whitfield siblings, as all her family died when the ship they were on sank at sea. Ellen and Harriet have become closer over the years, in fact, Ellen had romantic feelings for her friend that were unreciprocated. Their friendship continued despite the rebuttal. Harriet and William became close, dated and became engaged and Ellen is truly happy for her friend and brother. Once married it is planned that they will all live together in the Whitfield home. The wedding of William and Harriet has been postponed due to the mourning etiquette of the era, but William is happy to wait until Harriet feels it is the appropriate time. So, when Harriet suddenly calls off the engagement saying her mother told her to call it off, he is surprised as he always got on so well with Harriet’s family as well as being curious to how Mrs Kirk has told her daughter to call off their engagement/relationship from beyond the grave.
It turns out that Harriet has discovered a Spiritual Church and has been attending it for a while. It is there whilst in a séance circle that her mother spoke to her through the Circle leader Caroline and told her to break off her engagement with William. Harriet cannot seem to stay away from the Spiritual Church, in fact she confides in Ellen that she is going to move into the house where the Spiritual Church is based. Harriet tells Ellen that she feels safe and at “home” there and closer to her family again. Ellen tries to be the voice of reason asking Harriet about the home she is leaving, but Harriet reassures her she can/will come back when she is ready and she may even rent it out. Harriet then invites Ellen to visit her at the house where the Spiritual Church is based.
Ellen discusses the changes that Harriet is making in her life, with her brother William and naturally they are worried she is being taken advantage of. With her family gone, they are the only people to really look out for Harriet, and they are worried that this new on the scene Spiritual Church is just wanting Harriet’s money and property as her family left her quite comfortably off. Ellen explains that Harriet has invited her to visit her at the Spiritual Church house and suggests to William that maybe she should. Ellen plans to show her best friend Harriet that the Spiritual Church and its seances are nothing more than charlatans. Ellens idea is to visit and observe as much as possible, then work out how the séance’s etc work, to reveal the “tricks” that are being used against her friend.
Ellen does visit the once quite grand house that seems to have been let go into disrepair. The door is answered by the house owner Mrs Margaret Plumstead, herself a widow who is fiercely protective of the Church leader Caroline McLeod and isn’t afraid to make it known to new comers and anyone she may be suspicious of their motives for attending/visiting. Ellen visits on a few occasions welcomed by the house owner Margaret and Church leader Caroline. Everyone is very “normal” and welcoming, so much so Ellen feels a little guilty about the fact she is there on a mission to unmask their tricks! The only unwelcoming person in the house is Caroline’s daughter, Grace, a quiet, sullen young woman. At one point in the book Grace tries to warn Ellen off from becoming overly involved with the church. However this warning has the opposite effect on Ellen, who visits more and more, witnessing seances, and the use of the message boards. Ellen learns that the spirits communicate in various ways using Caroline as a conduit. The spirit may send a message via the dead Reverend McLeod who then speaks through Caroline with his voice. The spirits can also give Caroline the message directly for her to tell the recipient, or they can be asked questions and answer yes/no via sounds/taps on the séance table.
It's not long before Ellen is invited to move into the house and share a room with her friend Harriet. Ellen talks the idea over with William but has really already made up her mind to move in, though she is still determined to unmask Caroline as a fraud she is also becoming more and more drawn into the idea of those departed into spirit being able to speak to the living, even if it is via a third party or a variety of knocks on a table.
When Ellen moves in the house it’s full of women of various ages that have either lost husbands, or family members as well as a woman there who lost a child. All the women are waiting for a message from a departed love one for one reason or another. All the women have their own sad stories about those from their past they wish to have a message from. Even Ellen has suffered the loss of a loved one, though she keeps this information to herself, she is not really there to receive a message. Not everyone’s partners and families accept their loved ones living in the house in the hope of receiving messages from those departed loved one, very well. One husband becomes angry and tries to strongly persuade his wife to return home. Another rather spoilt young woman from a wealthy family, continually sways between staying as she likes being part of everything and getting a message but wanting to return to her family home to attend fancy balls and functions.
Mrs Plumstead is always quick to try to talk the women into staying, saying they never know when they’ll get a message and that if they only attend the church rather than living there, they could miss an opportunity. Caroline soon becomes attached and interested in Ellen saying she can sense she herself has a “gift” that if worked on could lead to her being able to communicate with spirit. Though sceptical, Ellen does some “work” on her gifts with Caroline. Theres a sudden increase in spiritual activity, it seems the departed are giving more physical messages for the women like a favourite flower, moving their things round etc.
When two mysterious deaths occur the suspicion immediately falls on those at the house when they cannot explain what happens there to the satisfaction of the Police. The Police investigate - secrets are uncovered, lies discovered and half-truths exposed.
Caroline is under suspicion, until someone else comes forward as the culprit, not of murdering those that died but of creating circumstances that led to accidents and their deaths. It’s a really sad end for the character that comes forward, it is clear they were so desperate not to be lonely, to keep their spiritualist family together and caught up in keeping the mystery and magic of spiritualism going that they themselves gave a human living hand to the spirits which ended in disaster for the two characters that died, meaning they had an extremely sad ending themselves too.
I really enjoyed the book, the way Ellen initially started attending the Church to prove to her friend Harriet that she was being tricked, but Ellen ended up moving in and though I don’t think she ever truly, fully 100% believed, though she came pretty close when she received her own “message” from a departed loved one. The book is very cleverly written as even as a reader you feel your opinions of the Spiritual Church and its leader Caroline flipping from one view to the other. The book covers a few important issues such as grief, loneliness, abuse, sexuality and women’s rights. I think the character of William was a very patient and fairly modern male in his attitude to Harriet’s reasons for calling off their engagement, his sister then visiting the Spiritual Church services more and more often and leaving the family home where she was the one who “looked after” him and “the home” which in that era would have been looked upon as her “abandoning her duties” to move into the Spiritual Church House. William was the voice of reason when Ellen visited him when she needed to escape the Spiritual House, never ridiculing her, only being supportive and providing a listening ear. Grace was a complicated character torn between protecting and caring for her mother and being truthful and pursuing a relationship with Ellen which was frowned upon in that era too. Women may have had relationships but it would have been behind closed doors and never talked about. During her time at the house Grace appear to really dislike Ellen, she even warns her to leave the house. Then she seems to warm to Ellen and there is a budding relationship between them, though Caroline will always be Grace’s first priority.
I really enjoyed learning the different stories and reasons for why the women were at the Spiritual Church house desperately awaiting messages from those in their lives who had died. Though most of the stories were emotional and I guess what I’m trying to say is I could understand why they felt the need for reassurance and messages from spirit. I’ll admit that I’d had my suspicions and they were proven right about who the real 'puppeteer' of the spirit apparitions was. It was a seriously sad ending for them.
My immediate feeling upon finishing the book were “Wow, my suspicions were right”! But then there was the feeling of sadness, particularly for one of the characters and how things ended for her. I was also curious as to whether Caroline was going to continue her séances and a Spiritual Church House.
Summing up, The Spirit Circle it was an interesting historical fiction book that covers a lot of subjects from thoughts and feelings about grief and séances, to sexuality and family relationships. I really enjoyed reading this one a lot, I was as intrigued as Ellen at some points as to what was happening and how! I loved the descriptions of the séances the wind flowing round the room, flickering candles etc they really helped you visualise the scenes well. I’d say that The Spirit Circle had a similar feel to it as The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond by Amanda Glaze which I also loved. The Spirit Circle would make a great TV mini-series!
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