The Seduction of Victor H.

Book excerpt: From the author of The Book of Lost Fragrances comes a hauntingly evocative and suspenseful novel about a grieving woman who discovers the long-lost letters of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries. A spellbinding gothic tale about Victor Hugo’s long-buried secrets and the power of a lover that never dies… Grieving his daughter’s death, Victor Hugo initiated séances from his home on the Isle of Jersey in order to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with Plato, Shakespeare, Dante- and even the devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it has been believed… A hundred years later, recovering from her own great loss, mythologist Jac L’Etoile is invited to Jersey to uncover a secret about the island’s mysterious Celtic roots. She’s greeted by Neolithic monuments, medieval castles, and hidden caves. But the man who has invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different…something that will threaten their sanity and put their very lives at stake.