The Necromancers

After the death of the girl he loved, young Laurie Baxter, a recent convert to Catholicism, is drawn toward the seance table in the hope of reaching her again, and Robert Hugh Benson follows that temptation to its dark conclusion. Published in 1909, the novel works as both a supernatural thriller and a pointed warning, since Benson, a Catholic priest, meant it as an argument against the spiritualism then in vogue across England. He treats the mediums and their gatherings with an insider’s seriousness, building dread as Laurie sinks deeper into a world he cannot control. His mother and a devoted young woman look on, powerless to pull him back. It remains one of the more unsettling religious ghost novels of its era. Free to read as a PDF or EPUB edition.