The Seance Society--A Mystery

August 5, 2013
Nethercott’s first full-length novel, a classically styled Holmesian whodunit set in 1956, introduces Lee Plunkett, an underemployed PI following reluctantly in his late father’s detective footsteps, and Mr. O’Nelligan, a charmingly low-key and literary-minded Irishman. Together they investigate the death of Trexler Lloyd, a rich eccentric, egomaniac, and patron of the arts of spirit communication, who appears to have been electrocuted at a private demonstration of “the Spectricator,” a device for speaking with the dead, at his home in Braywick, Conn. The plot manages to be twisty while proceeding logically, though the unanalyzed clues are often obvious enough that the reader must assume that Plunkett is none too clever and the smarter O’Nelligan is holding his cards close before the grand gathering and reveal. The household’s collection of psychics, servants, and ghosts are a colorful lot, but in the end are merely quirky where they could have been hilariously bold. Agent: Susan Gleason, Susan Gleason Literary Agency.

September 1, 2013
Nethercott's debut is a pleasantly retro whodunit, set in 1956, in which otherworldly spirits compete for attention with flesh-and-blood sitcom types. Detective George Agnelli's been on the job for 38 years, and when he says something smells fishy, you've got to listen to him. After they listen to him, private eye Lee Plunkett and his unlicensed partner, Mr. O'Nelligan, agree to investigate the death of wealthy inventor Trexler Lloyd, dead at a seance he hosted shortly after convening the Otherworld's Fair. Agnelli's suspicious of coroner Felix Emmitt, an associate of Lloyd's, who just happened to be on hand to pronounce him electrocuted after the Spectricator, a gadget he developed to facilitate communication with the dead, added him to their number instead. As it happens, everyone else on the scene looks equally suspicious. Lloyd's widow, Constanza, is so alluring that anyone might have done anything to win her. Celebrated medium C.R. Kemple has clearly been spending too much time among spirits. Ex-speak-easy queen Sassafras Miller might as well be on her own planet. The other participants in the seance, Loretta Mapes and Herb and Adelle Greer, are either desperate to contact their beloved dead or convinced they have the gift of second sight themselves. Even the household's domestics seem to have stepped from the pages of Agatha Christie. Everything Lee and his courtly partner assumed about Lloyd's death turns out to be wrong, in the fine tradition of Golden Age puzzlers. And like them, this one ends with a long explanatory denouement as logical as it is rickety. A nostalgic blast from the past that conscientiously resurrects the strengths and weaknesses of its decorously wacky models.

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October 1, 2013

PI Lee Plunkett is not impressed by a Samhain event aimed at those wanting to communicate with their departed loved ones, but his fiancee, Audrey, and his colleague, Mr. O'Nelligan, find the occasion stimulating. The event sponsors, inventor Trexler Lloyd, medium C.R. Kemple, and actress Sassafras Miller, have quite a thriving little operation. Weeks later, Lloyd's machinery (designed to help contact spirits) backfires, and he dies in his home. Something doesn't jibe with local police detective George Agnelli, though, and he hires Plunkett and O'Nelligan to investigate the death. (His department suspects accidental electrocution.) Interviewing the assorted household members and various affiliates reveals a rude surprise: Lloyd was supposed to fake dying that evening. When a second victim falls, the PIs go full bore, coordinating a rousing parlor-room finale. VERDICT As relaxing as a game of Clue, Nethercott's cozy debut set in 1956 Connecticut sparkles with a mix of W.B. Yeats and Elvis quotations, well-placed red herrings, and an endearing trio of protagonists. This delightful debut is sure to resonate with Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" fans. Nethercott's Plunkett and O'Nelligan duo got their start in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

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