A Drowned Maiden's Hair

To really appreciate this book, the reader needs to know a little bit about the spiritualist movement. Basically it was people who said they could contact the dead and pass on messages. They used a variety of methods; trance, the ouiji board, moving objects, materializations, etc.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these people were frauds. The history of the movement and their methods is really quite interesting.

Anyhow, this book is about some people involved in that. There are three ladies; Hyacinth, Victoria and Judith. They have a servant named Muffet, or at least that is what they call her, who is deaf and, at the start of the story, unable to read or write.

Maud, the main character, is an eleven-year-old girl, small for her age, at a place something like an orphanage. The women choose her, and it turns out they want her to help them in their deceptions.

Victoria finally breaks with the group, disgusted at how they are misleading people. Hyacinth is looking to make some $5000 from one woman who wants to talk to her dead daughter, and Maud is to play the daughter.

Things go really badly, though, and Maud's own life is in danger. People she thought loved her turn on her, and things come full circle for her, at least for a while.

This is really an excellent book. It has a lot to say about how far some people will go for money, and how love can be totally faked. Definitely a must-read book.

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