It's not easy being a True Oracle. Just ask Madame Seraphina Fox. As a fraudulent medium (but first-class showman), Madame Fox has invented a new twist in the Spiritualism game. No old-fashioned table-turning for her. Instead, she communicates with the dead using her patented device, the Electrical Spiritograph. It's an original scheme-and a lucrative one. Fashionable society flocks to her Temple of Spiritualism. In an atmosphere that is half mysticism and half crackpot science, she amazes her clients with the accuracy of her spiritual communications. All signs point to good fortune for Madame Fox-until her machine unexpectedly brings to light the body of a bride-to-be who vanished mysteriously years ago. Before long, Madame Fox is forced to mediate between her not-very-spiritual sources, a dangerous murderer, and a Scotland Yard detective who is skeptical about the whole subject of spiritualism. *** The Ghost in the Machine is the first book of the Seraphina Fox Mystery Series. Set in 1880s London, it's a world where the mask of propriety can conceal the darkest of crimes, and a lady needs all her wits about her to distinguish a true friend from a deadly enemy.