The Séance Garden
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B+
What I’m Talking About:
When a skeptic professor of the occult loses a bet and finds herself on a cheesy ghost tour, of course, they find a body buried under a witch tree in the yard of a house with a dark history where she sees something inexplicable. I’ve seen Juliet Blackwell’s books around and had every intention of trying one, but I found one set in old Monterey, California and oozing gothic atmosphere was just the book for me.
Professor Harper Grae teaches at the local college on supernatural and folklore subjects, but personally, she doesn’t think the like exists. The ghost tour she is on due to her friend Tariq isn’t a complete wash when she learns from the guide there is a historical witch connection. Then, they discover the body of the home’s owner buried alive in the same location a woman two centuries before found her death.
And, just as unsettling, Harper sees something in the Perle mansion that she can’t reason and argue as a hoax. This, and the murder, drive her to investigate the dark history of this home. Her friend Tariq somehow is situated at the top of the police suspect list so that ups the ante on getting to the truth.
Inexplicable things continue to happen in that haunted house from a mad scientist’s laboratory, a mirror that should never have been unshrouded, a tattered journal, and the evil that has always been there. Outside the property, Harper’s investigation has stirred things up and after another murder and incidents to others, she realizes she’s a target. She can’t walk away now even when in acute danger.
The Séance Garden is thrilling without the thriller pacing. It lavishes on with the setting of the Monterey Bay area in details I found interesting. There is also that atmospheric tone that raises the hairs on one’s neck a few times. There’s that is it or isn’t it feeling as one wonders if human or supernatural agency is behind certain events. It’s a mystery at the heart of the story and I stood no chance whatsoever of coming to the right conclusion.
The ending was cozy and the overall book stays just the paranormal mystery side of the line though horror fans would probably enjoy this for light ‘cozy horror’ reading. I wish the side characters were more fleshed out, but over all was really into The Séance Garden.
Now, I am glad there is a backlist by the author for me to relish and I look forward to more of her efforts. Those who like haunted house stories, supernatural folklore, loads of atmosphere, a well-painted local setting, and a solid main character, look no further for an excellent spooky season read.
My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
After a cheesy ghost tour in one of California’s oldest towns stumbles upon an actual haunting, a skeptical historian of the occult becomes entangled in solving a murder case.
When Professor Harper Grae loses a bet with a friend, she finds herself on a local nighttime tour of “haunted” locations in Monterey. Harper’s a lifelong non-believer in the occult, though her academic career is devoted to the historical and societal significance of witchcraft, ghosts, and medicinal poisons of all sorts. But her skepticism immediately gets tested when the tour stumbles on the body of local artist Delilah Mason—who’s found murdered on the grounds of a nearly two-hundred-year-old mansion, once home to the infamous Perles family.
On the night Mason’s body is found, Harper catches sight of something in the house that she can’t shake, something that’s impossible to explain, at least not rationally. Soon the murder investigation reveals that this is the second time a woman has been found murdered beneath a sprawling cypress tree in the gardens of the Perles Mansion. And when Harper’s closest friend is questioned by the police, Harper fears the authorities will fail to uncover the real killer.
As Harper asks questions around town and digs deeper into the supernatural speculation and rumors surrounding the murders—two women killed in similar circumstances, separated by nearly two centuries —she sees evidence she can’t ignore that the notorious mansion truly is haunted by the ghost of Isabel Perles.
What will it cost Harper to rethink everything she’s always believed to admit that the veil between the living and the dead might actually be crossed?
Release Date: July 28, 2026
Publisher: Berkley
Series: standalone
Genre: paranormal mystery
Format(s): paperback (400 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley