Victoria Thompson once again "vividly recreates the gaslit world of New York."(" Publishers Weekly") Sarah Brandt is not completely surprised when her very proper mother asks her to attend a sance. She knows that Mrs. Decker still carries great guilt over the death of her older daughter, Maggie. So Sarah accompanies her and the spiritualist does seem to contact Maggie-convincing Mrs. Decker to attend another sance. Only this time, one of the attendees doesn't succeed in speaking to the dead-she joins them. Now, it's up to Sarah and Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy to protect Mrs. Decker from scandal-by determining how a woman was murdered in the pitch dark when every suspect was holding the hand of the person next to them.