Graves Gate

Second-Hand (Hardcover)

Excellent condition

A Novel of Possession Featuring Arthur Conan Doyle

A novel set in 1922 London, Graves Gate straddles the frightening intersection of early psychiatry and the paranormal. At the centre of the tale is the prominent author and public figure, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Accustomed to ridicule from the press and high society for his belief in the spirit world, Doyle is offered a surprise opportunity to confirm his unconventional views when he receives a letter purportedly written by Dr Bernard Gussmann, the psychiatrist who had treated Doyle's father years earlier, and then died.

The letter dangles a prospect before the novelist that he cannot resist - a chance to commune with the deceased. In exchange, however, Doyle must do a puzzling favour for the mysterious correspondent: arrange for any one of three people designated in the letter, each at one time a patient of Gussmann, to visit an imprisoned woman awaiting hanging for murder.

Is the letter a preposterous hoax, or can Gussmann somehow still live? Is someone trying to exploit Doyle's beliefs by taking the identity of a dead man? Eager to learn the truth, but hoping to avoid more public embarrassment, Doyle seeks help from Charles Baker, an American reporter with the Associated Press, who served in military intelligence during World War I. In turn, Baker gains the assistance of Adrianna Wallace, the comely wife of a member of Parliament, and a battlefield nurse in the recent war.

The duo investigate those named in the letter while pursuing a baffling trail that leads them to Morton Graves Hospital, where Gussmann practised psychiatry, and to the doctor's grave, which they exhume. Interred there they find coded journals that describe a hypnotic technique dubbed "subgnostic possession," and soon become participants in a deadly game of musical chairs.

To stop the devious practices they've discovered, Charles and Adrianna try to lure Dr. Gussmann - or his impersonator - into a cunningly conceived trap baited with a human being.