Alright! It feels nice to be able to read books in a series back to back like this, helps me not forget what had happened in the previous volume. So, I was able to get my hands on Spirit of Denial, the second book of the O'Hare House Mysteries by Kate Danley through Hoopla, an online thing that allows you to check out ebooks and the like with your library card.
Spirit of Denial picks right up from where A Spirited Manor left off. In this one, Clara confronts her house staff, only to find out that they are honestly and truly ghosts! And she has the ability to see and speak with them! Wesley, on the other hand, is still involved in this book, with him and Clara having fallen for each other, wherever Clara goes, he is not very far behind. Now, what had transpired at the late Lord Horace Oroberg's estate seems to be much bigger than either of these two could've imagined for now they are trying to stop an ancient Egyptian curse! The reason for Violet to have become a demon! The very reason why all those people had died...
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
Clara finally confronts Mr. Willard and Mrs. Nan on Wesley's words about how her house had laid empty all these years, all the house staff having died fifteen years ago. She says that it's all fine, frankly she would prefer to have them there. They then explain to her the night that they died, having saw the shape of a woman in the mirror before their untimely demise and the company Lord Oroberg had invited over. One of them being Peter Nero, Violet's father who has been missing after that night. Apparently Lord Oroberg and some others were funding an expedition of an Egyptian tomb! They brought back souvenirs and Peter Nero had received something as well. Clara comes to the conclusion that the strange Egyptian souvenir must have caused Violet to become that beastly thing that killed everyone...
Soon after, Clara goes to visit Marguerite in the hospital, in which they talk about the events of Lord Oroberg's estate. Clara explains that Violet was possessed fifteen years ago and she was the one who killed the people who lived in her house, which matched up with Marguerite's timeline, having been hunting down the strange killings for the past fifteen years. Clara also explains her theory on the cursed Egyptian souvenir and Marguerite tells her to go to Mr. Hampstead, Lord Oroberg's estate lawyer, he would have the item and Clara needs to act as an interested buyer.
Clara then invites Wesley over to meet her otherworldly staff, and to speak about what she had discovered. Wesley comes over and to him, it looks as if Clara had gone mad! Talking to the air with no one there and such... until his things start floating off without him...
He doesn't believe until Clara asks Mr. Willard to show himself to Wesley, in which he does, and Wesley is beside himself! Honestly, this was really funny to read.
Clara explains to Wesley everything she had learned and they are then headed to Mr. Hampstead, post-haste... only to find out that the item is gone and that two men came claiming ownership with documents: Dr. Mallfeld and Dr. Van Flemming. The artifact went to Dr. Mallfeld, as he was the first one there to claim it. They soon learn that he is an archaeologist at the natural history museum in town and they head there, finding out that Dr. Mallfeld is having a presentation about the excavation from fifteen years ago and they stay for it. Clara and Wesley also bump into Dr. Van Flemming, who give them his call card, discovering that he is extremely displeased with Dr. Mallfeld, for the things he did. Even going to the extent of calling him a fraud, that he isn't a real archaeologist!
Clara and Wesley confront Dr. Mallfeld about the cursed item, only to find out that he doesn't have it anymore! And that he has been plagued with nightmares of a woman demanding him to find her a new vassal. He had given it to Phineas Stokeman, one of the sponsors of the excavation. Dr. Mallfeld had gambled away the money for the excavation, hoping to double their funds, but lost instead, and gt into great debt with Mr. Stokeman, the only way to quell his debt was to hand over the artifact, which is an urn with a heart in it, to match the mummy that Dr. Van Flemming has. The daring duo had gone to Dr. Van Flemming and found out some information, including being able to see his "treasure room" so to speak, with all of his artifacts from Egypt.
The duo then go to Mr. Stokeman and speak with him... only to find out that he gave the urn to someone else! Like the chase is endless! He gave it to a burlesque girl he was seeing, who promptly dismissed them when they went to her asking for it. Soon enough, they head back to Mr. Stokeman and explain the curse, him being a skeptic, proposes a seance. Here we go again! Seance happens, Dr. Van Flemming is invited, Clara sees the spirit who uses the burlesque girl as her puppet, demanding ehr heart back, afterwards they find out the heart isn't in the urn.
Clara is soon "spelled" by Phineas, to complete some ritual because she is a true medium. Escaping Phineas before he could bind her soul, heart in hand, she meets a cabbie who she sends to get Wesley while she goes to Dr. Van Flemming's to put the heart back. Long story short, she gets the heart in the mummy, binding it with the scarab necklace used to spell Clara, and Phineas dies while the burlesque girl lives. When the four emerge their story is that Phineas was behind all the murders in the last fifteen years, which he was technically, the cabbie having called the coppers to the scene because he was concerned for Clara. Marguerite meets them there, up and out of bed finally! The cabbie takes Clara and Wesley to her house and she sees Minnie is home, and the cabbie sees her as well! Clara asks for his name and he introduces himself as Red.
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
I had gotten through this book fairly quickly, as well as the first one, and I personally feel that the books are short. That or my reading speed has improved. Who knows?
Anyways, the ending gave me a lot of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries vibes with the cabbie, Red. Like, Clara is finding all these people and taking them in, almost, like Miss Phryne Fisher herself!
While I did enjoy the story, one thing still perplexes me: the scarab necklace. How did it have the power to do the things it did? How did it effect Clara in such a way? It is never explained... But I did really enjoy the book, I do recommend this series if you don't mind small discrepancies. Overall, it was good, and now that they have met Red, wonder how he ties into the next book, unless the next one literally picks right up where this one leaves off. If all the books are like that, it would've been better for all four to be combined into one novel, and while there is a box set of all the books, they are sectioned off as separate books.
So, I do recommend this book, it is quite cheap on the Kindle store by itself at $3.99, but I highly suggest that if you are planning on reading the rest of the series, buy the box set. The box set is literally cheaper than if you were to buy all three books separately, considering the first one is free. It is less than $5 to buy the box set, the listing at least, not including tax. Thank you for reading! I gather that my next review will be about the next book in the series since it is available to read from Hoopla. I hope you readers will be back for the next one!
No comments:
Post a Comment