Another book for RIPXXI! Ex-nun Nora Breen encounters her friend Detective Inspector Hilary Rideout, and he asks her to come with him to the home of Doreen Chimes, a spiritualist. She has made a complaint of a theft, and Rideout asks Nora to come along as his “chaperone.”
Nora is interested to find that several people think Mrs. Chimes is legitimate, including Rideout. He is invited to a séance at her house to which Nora, as an ex-nurse, is summoned because the medium has collapsed. Mrs. Chimes is dead, having collapsed while using a planchette. Attending the event are Rideout, Lady and Miss Baybrooke, Colonel Fulford, Freddie Grace, and his unexpected date Sybil Sparkes. Mrs. Chimes died as the planchette spelled out “Eve.”
Nora begins to suspect foul play because she has noticed strange red patterns on Mrs. Chimes’ hand. It seems as if someone at the séance must have done something, because no one else was in the room. Before they get very far in the investigation, though, there is a bizarre incident at the Baybrookes’ hotel. Nora witnesses Miss Baybrooke running wildly through the hotel. She seems to be shouting at no one. She finally throws herself out the window, but Nora spots a spectral-looking soldier on the fire-escape. Lady Baybrooke is found dead in bed, her asthma inhaler filled with powder.
In trying to find an Eve, Nora and Rideout learn that Miss Baybrooke was engaged to a flyer during the war, Evelyn Leyton, a patient in the hospital that the Baybrookes’ estate was requisitioned for. He had mental problems, and after Lady Baybrooke made her break it off, he committed suicide.
As the investigation continues, more links are found between Evelyn Leyton and the séance attendees, including Rideout, who knew him. Someone seems to be taking revenge for his death, as the attendees begin dying strange deaths. Nora becomes concerned for Rideout.
This is the second Nora Breen novel. Although I prefer some of Kidd’s other books, I like Nora and Rideout and some of Nora’s friends. The damp seaside town is evocative. I figured out the name of the killer fairly quickly, but the killer was in disguise, and I didn’t figure out who that person was. I found the novel entertaining.
What? Me Read? 