I hadn’t picked up a Barbara Michaels book in a long time; mostly I’ve been adequately entertained by her alter ego, Elizabeth Peters, and the Amelia Peabody Emerson mysteries. I read most of Barbara Michaels’ Gothic romance novels when I was in high school. I wasn’t even aware that the author still published books under that pseudonym until I spotted
Other Worlds
in the bargain stacks. For three dollars, I didn’t have much to lose and brought the book home with me.
The Plot
The setting for Other Worlds is a private 19th century men’s club on a different plane than the earthly one. Various members of the Society for Psychical Research meet for two evenings of their favorite activity: formulating theories about the actual occurrences of the ghost story chosen as the topic for the evening. Some Society members are present on both evenings, but not all. Members bring in guests for the evening as well, to give new insights when members of the Society have tired of hearing each other’s pet theories applied to every case. Members include Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Andrew Lang, among others.
The First Evening: Harry Houdini presents that evening’s case about the Bell Witch. Allegedly a poltergeist invaded the home of John Bell and his family in early 19th century Tennessee and stayed for six years. The haunting started innocently enough with rapping and scratching noises, progressed to small physical acts such as pulling hair and pinching, and eventually spoke to the Bell family and their friends.
At the end of Houdini’s presentation, each gentleman presents his thoughts and hypothesis regarding the case and they debate a little longer and retire for the evening. The special guest that evening is a police inspector of great renown.
The Second Evening: The special guest presents that evening’s case, in the form of a fictionalized account of the haunting of the Phelps family in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1850. The newly married Reverend and Mrs. Phelps move into a large house in Stratford, from Philadelphia, with Mrs. Phelps four children, ages 16 to preschool, from her first marriage. The haunting began that spring with objects moving from the room where they’d been put to objects flying across the room. The ghost made up tableaux of stuffed figures as well as rearranged the furniture, left incomprehensible notes and ultimately tried to strangle one of the children.
At the end of the guest’s presentation, she gives her viewpoint first and exits, abruptly ending the session.
Elements of Style
Other Worlds is completely unlike any other book by Michaels/Peters that I’ve read so far, definitely a departure from her usual styles. After the first evening’s presentation, each member of the Society gives his point of view, contained in its own chapter. I expected the same set up after the second evening’s presentation of the case, particularly because some of the members of the Society had not come on the previous evening. I felt cheated that Michaels did not present several different theories about the origins of the Phelps ghost, merely gave the guest’s point of view, canny though it was. The brusque nature of the ending really annoyed me because Michaels could have used the members’ theories to build up to her climax with the guest’s theory about the case. Or maybe she was just tired of this book, didn’t feel up to developing theories for each person present, and took the easy out.
Otherwise, I did like the method of designating a chapter to each member or guest’s theory, much in the manner that different critiques of literary texts are arranged together in some critical textbooks. Michaels’ handling of several differing viewpoints and debate between the characters required skill and detailed research (some of the characters were real people, others I’m not sure about).
The narratives of the two ghost stories flowed well, mostly in chronological order. Besides more theories, I would have like a few more ghost stories as well, though I have to admit, I finished this book in less than 24 hours because after my first session with it (at night), I had to finish the tome in broad daylight to allay an overactive imagination.
Overall
Other Worlds has an interesting premise, I just wish there was more of it for me to gnaw on. I do, reservedly, recommend this book, though not as heartily as I would recommend any other book by Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. If you find Other Worlds on sale for three bucks, it’s worth the money merely for the time it takes to read it, or check it out from the library, but don’t pay full price.