A beautiful and heart-wrenching story about how we think of the dead and what effect their deaths have on the living. Set against a backdrop of Boston in the 1850's the story follows a photographer who has gained some renown photographing people and capturing the spirits of their loved ones in the photos. Is he a man who brings people comfort or a con-man?
It also tells the story of an abolitionist and upstanding politician and his wife, who lost their young son years ago. He is a skeptic who accompanies his wife to the Spirit Photographer reluctantly.
When the negative is revealed, a secret buried long ago is unearthed and has far-reaching consequences.
The Civil War, Slavery, the Underground Railroad, Mysticism and love are all explored in this well-written historical novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A really interesting and well told story with wonderful writing. I found myself thinking about it when I was reading it and raced pack to pick it up.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

"Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody runs a booming business capturing the images of the spirits of the departed in his portraits. "

Throughout the book, I felt like I was reading snippets of newspaper columns all crunched together into a few paragraphs. Based on true history, the topic was obviously well researched but the reading was dry and that made the book seem over long.

3☆

Taking place in Boston in 1870 after the Civil War is over. Photographer Edward Moody sees all the stress and sadness from the widows and mothers of the departed. He promises to capture the ghost of ones dearly departed loved ones. After the Civil War interest in Spiritualism increases. This photographer takes pictures of live people but when developed a spirit from the person's past shows up in the photo with them. This Southern Gothic mystery takes you from the streets of Boston to the bayous of Louisiana during the fascinating time of the Reconstruction. You will not want to put this one down once you start it. It has many characters that may be confusing at first but these well written character's all come together at the end.
Pub Date 17 Apr 2018
I was given a complimentary copy of this book by The Overlook Press through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Spirit Photographer is a historical fiction novel that takes readers on a journey from the bustling streets of Boston to the Louisiana bayou during 1870 with a man who is seeking answers to his past. Aside from the historical aspects to the book, it also contains small elements of the paranormal, some politics, and class struggles. If the theme of slavery and slaves being abused by their owners disturbs you, I don't recommend picking up this book. It did remind me of The Alienist. The author paid good attention to historical detail. I found the scenes in the Louisiana bayou to be written very visually. This was also a good story of how one person can have a profoundly different affect on many different people's lives. I felt like the politics were just a tad overdone at times. I realize one of the characters is a political figure and therefore it was necessary, but the extent of it almost distracted me from the other parts of the story. Overall, a good historical fiction book about the lengths people will go for others with a good mystery rolled in.

If, in the midst of the craziness that is our nation at the moment, you need an escape, one that won't cost a fortune, one that will be completely immersive—try Jon Michael Varese's The Spirit Photographer. Set shortly after the end of the Civil War, the novel follows a varied cast of characters caught up in what may, or may not, be a series of cons. A photographer claims the ability to take photographic portraits that show not only the sitter, but also the spirit of someone the sitter has loved who has "crossed over." As you read, you won't just be entertained by the book's action. You'll also have a chance to see how that era was experienced by different classes of individuals, including recently freed slaves and women. Depending on your reading speed, you can count on The Spirit Photographer for a good five hours (plus or minus) of escape from our own historical moment.

4 glowing stars to The Spirit Photographer! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

It’s 1870 in Boston, and photographer Edward Moody’s job is to capture spirits of departed loved ones in photos. The word on the street is that Moody is a scammer, but at the same time, his popularity is spreading, and his work is in high demand.

Moody ends up developing a photo with a “real” spirit connected to himself instead of his paying client. As a result, he travels to Louisiana to resolve some of his past.

The Spirit Photographer is a southern Gothic mystery taking place during the fascinating time of the Reconstruction. It’s well-written with round characters and took me on quite the thrill ride! Just who was that spirit captured in Moody’s photo?

Another fabulous recommendation from my friend, Fran!

Thank you to Jon Michael Varese, Overlook Press, and Netgalley for the ARC. The Spirit Photographer releases on April 17, 2018!

Jon Michael Varese brings us an excellent tale based on facts of the reconstruction years following the Civil War. We travel from Boston to New Orleans and into the cypress swamps with photographer Edward Moody and his black assistant Joseph Winter following the long cold trail of Isabelle, once loved by both men in their own way. And with Senator James B. Garrett and his wife Elizabeth we are exposed to the vague influence of Washington DC and the already looming spyglass of public awareness on all things political. Things legal greet us from the very public trial of Edward Moody for swindling many credulous persons, leading them to believe that his spirit photographs are true representations of the spirits of their lost love ones. In the process we find complete immersion into the spirit of life in this telling period of American History, as the nation tries to heal and move onward from the devastation of the Civil War.

I found this novel very informative of many facets of life in the 1865 - 1870's America. Varese presents us with aspects of travel, police procedures, immersion of freed blacks into the cloth of civilization, and even Voodoo practices as well as the history of the Spiritualists and Scientists in America during those critical years.

But The Spirit Photographer: A Novel, is first and foremost an entertaining tale, hard to put down. I can happily recommend this novel to friends and family. It is difficult to believe this is a debut novel. I will look for more coming out by this gifted author.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jon Michael Varese, and The Overlook Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

Some of my favorite stories or legends are about ghosts. Whether it's the old woman under the bridge, crying about her dead children or the uncle who comes in and sits on the end of the bed, I CRAVE these kinds of stories.

The Spirit Photographer by Jon Michael Varese is the story of Edward Moody. Based in Boston, it's been said that he's able to capture lost loved ones. In post Civil War America, many widows are looking for signs, especially at this time - during the HEIGHT of spiritualism.

Moody travels to New Orleans - because in one of his own photos, he recognizes a face. Its the daughter of an escaped slave that he knew in the past and he wants to resolve their unfinished business.

Varese writes with an intensity. He takes you, the reader, directly into the bayou. You feel the humidity, you smell the water, you see the moss.

This is a fabulous book and one that I truly enjoyed. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

An unsettling combination of southern gothic horror and the true horror of slavery in the southern states of the U.S. The arguments regarding spirit photography are oddly prescient of the present arguments surrounding fake news, and, while I felt there were times when the plot needed reigning in slightly, I congratulate the author on managing to weave so many threads into a compelling story

The title and cover photo drew me to this novel. I've been really into historical fiction lately and as a genealogist, this was my kind of story.

It's set after the Civil War has ended and a photographer, Moody, has had his fill of photographing depressing battle field images. So he sets about doing photographs in which the deceased images show up in portraits of family members.

There was a big belief in spiritualism at that time and the author certainly did a good job at facts on that. Also how things were during that period in history. The part set in New Orleans was described very realistic. I could see the Spanish moss hanging from the trees from the descriptive words of the author. It was an interesting book that anyone into historical fiction would enjoy!

* I was provided an ARC to read from the publisher and NetGalley. It was my decision to read and review this book.

The immediate appeal of this book to me was the Southern Gothic feel and the idea of spirit photography. Spiritualism always seems to have its rise during times of war but the idea of it being mixed in with the rise of new forms of technology is really interesting to me.
The plot itself is a mystery, the spirit of a missing woman appears in a photo of a Senator and his wife but Moody, the photographer, also knew this woman and must figure out how she connects all of them together.

This is quite a fast paced novel and covers a lot of ground, including a lot of the politics about the abolition of slavery. In all honesty, I wasn’t a fan of that part of the novel as the only in-depth views came from the white characters. Apart from lacking the balance I’d like, it also felt lacking in the emotion needed to really describe the far-reaching evil of it all.

Without a clear final judgement of ‘all these men are terrible people’, it’s a story that just leaves me sad and a bit peeved.

What I did enjoy was the big question mark over spirit photography and the psychology and ethics of it all, as well as the well-researched feel of the novel. When the characters end up taking a jaunt to New Orleans, you feel yourself go there with them and take in the atmosphere of the city as it would have been back then.


Overall, the book lacked the emotion I needed to really make it stand out but the mystery itself is compelling.

Princess Fuzzypants here:
Victorian times saw an increase in spiritualism on both sides of the Atlantic. In America, after a bloody and divisive Civil War, people were desperate to connect with deceased loved ones. No matter what you may think about the supernatural, frauds and charlatans openly preyed on the bereaved.
Moody runs a photographic studio where a picture could produce a ghostly image of the dead. Did he have a genuine talent or was he, like so many others, tricking the vulnerable. In this book, perhaps, it is a bit of both when someone he loved and lost shows up in the photograph of a Senator and his wife. This unexplained appearance shakes Moody, his apprentice and the couple. What is the ghost telling them and why did she elicit such a strong response in the subjects of the photo.
The rest of the book explores what she meant to the four people involved who witnessed the photo and why the Senator and his wife are so determined to block the photo from ever seeing daylight. There are elements of supernatural shenanigans and some very real and cruel realities. At times there is almost too much going on but it is a compelling and chilling story.
I give four purrs and two paws up.

”Banner of Light
”Boston, Massachusetts Saturday, August 5, 1865
“A NEW PHASE of spiritual manifestations is exciting a great deal of attention and wonder in those who take an interest in the grand and beautiful subject of spirit communion. If this phenomenon in spiritual manifestation be genuine, it is the greatest and the best yet given to outside perception and bears incontrovertible evidence of the truth that spiritual communications are what they claim to be, viz.: actual manifestations of the ‘dead’ to the ‘living.’”

Edward Moody once apprenticed to famed photographer Matthew Brady, photographing the fallen.

”My subjects today did not make appointments for their sittings. They were photographed as they fell, their hands clutching the grass around them, or reaching out for help that never came. The red light of battle is faded from their eyes, but their lips are still set with that last fierce charge which loosed their souls from their bodies. The ground upon which they lie is torn by shot and shell, and the grass trampled down by the tread of hot, hurrying feet. Little rivulets that can scarcely be of water are still trickling along the earth like tears over a mother’s face.“

After the days of such scenes were behind him, the lure of offering peace, perhaps even hope, to the families of those who have lost loved ones. Moody, returned from apprenticing for Brad, has his own thriving photography business. While not all of his photographs include spirits, many do include those who have passed beyond the veil. Still, many consider him a fraud, but each time some person, some group tries to expose him as a fraud, scrutinizing each step of his work, his fame grows. As his fame grows, more grieving widows, and mothers mourning the loss of children flock to him as word spreads.

”I cannot shake from my thoughts the one side of these pictures that the sun did not catch…the one phase that has escaped our photographic skill. It is the background of widows and orphans…mothers, sons, daughters…torn from their natural protectors by the remorseless hand of battle. This war has made thousands of homes desolate, and has forever quenched the light of life in thoughts of hearts. Imagination must be the one to paint all this desolation, for I cannot – broken hearts cannot be photographed.”

Within these pages is a mystery beyond how Moody manages to capture the images of the departed, involving the image of a woman who appears in the photograph of a Senator, who agrees to sit for this photograph only to placate his still grieving wife, and the wife who is depending on their son’s image appearing. When a ghostly image appears that is not their son, each is struck by their own thoughts.

Getting to the bottom of this mystery sends Moody traveling to the bayous of Louisiana, while the Senator’s wife sinks deeper into her own thoughts pondering why this woman’s image would appear in their photo, and why now. The Senator only knows that public opinion is not only against the practice of spiritual photography, but also that if the photograph is leaked, too many questions would arise, and his political aspirations would be shredded.

Whispers of voodoo haunt these pages, as answers are sought, a journey to see if enough light is cast upon the darkness, will truth bring peace.


Pub Date: 17 APR 2018

Many thanks for the ARC provided by The Overlook Press

I am my families resident genealogist. When I saw the book about “spirit photography” it totally piqued my interest. Spirit Photography? I have got to read this book and find out what it is all about. While it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting it was still an amazing book. With it being loosely based on true events it makes it even better since it’s no secret that I enjoy books based on true events.

The story weaves around Elizabeth Garrett and her husband James. They are a prominent family in Boston. James is a Senator and a staunch supporter of the freeing of slaves. The rest of the story revolves around Edward Moody and Joseph Winter. Edward is a “Spirit Photographer”. He is both lauded for reuniting loved ones with their deceased family members and frowned upon for taking advantage of people. Some think he is a trickster or uses slight of hand. The Garrett’s and Moody’s paths cross when Elizabeth books a sitting so that they can hopefully get the spirit of their deceased 3-year-old son William Jeffery Garrett’s on a photo with them. That way they can be reunited once more. Elizabeth is very excited for the sitting. She has taken the death of her son hard. James, on the other hand, is very skeptical and slightly digs his heels in when his wife suggests the photo. In the end, he gives in and goes with her. While they received their spirit photo, it is not the spirit they were expecting or planning on ever seeing again. The spirit that appeared was Isabelle, the nanny of their son, who vanished after he died. Elizabeth angerly storms out while James is visibly shaken. Will Elizabeth and James be able to weather this storm together or will it tear them apart? Will Joseph be able to save Moody from himself and from the fire and pitchforks that are after him?

If you only buy/read/borrow one book this year it has got to be this one! Once I actually sat down to read this book, I just flew through it. If you are a post Civil War/Reformation history buff this book is for you. The characters were well rounded. You could sympathize with Elizabeth for the loss of her child but at the same time be slightly appalled by her for her actions as the book progressed. With James, I must say that I really never sympathize with him. I was more appalled by his actions than anyone else in the book. The way Elizabeth would cover up any of his transgression so that it did not tarnish his reputation as a Senator disgusted me. Moody and Winter I envisioned as a Sherlock Holmes and Watson duo. Moody is the slightly clueless counterpart to Winter’s street smarts and knowing how things work in the world. This book kept me guessing as to what was going to happen on the next page. It gave me a historical mystery that I would happily buy as a gift for the history buff in my family. I will definitely keep an eye out for more books by this author.

I had a very difficult time getting into this book. I was unable to finish it.

This was a strong debut. Overall the plot was sensational enough that I wanted to read through to the end. The characters had considerable depth. I enjoyed how the perspective seamlessly changed from one character to the next. The author provided wonderful descriptions of the landscape, specifically in Louisiana. I am not sure the book needed to have quite as much of the political machinery. That part seemed disjointed. While it had context with the rest of the plot, it almost dampened the emotions the author had created to that point. The author did a fine job of writing a book set in such a dynamic time period of US history.

I had a hard time getting into this book. Since I did not finish it, I do not intend to publish a review.

(Thank you Netgalley for an early reader copy)

Set in Boston not long after the end of the Civil War, "The Spirit Photographer" is the story of a man, Edward Moody, who takes "spirit photographs", which are photographs of live people, but when developed, a spirit from the people's past shows up in the picture with them. It might be a deceased relative, a friend...but Moody has developed a business catering to those who yearn for one last sight of a lost loved one. It's quite a profitable business for Mr. Moody. But when the figure of a woman shows up in the photograph of the beloved and influential Senator Garrett and his wife Elizabeth, the questions begin. Who is this woman? What is her relationship to the Senator? How did she come to be in the picture? The revelations sends the parties involved on intricate and mysterious quest. Hidden fractures in the relationship between the Senator and Elizabeth appear and get broader. The mystery of their son's death, and the disappearance of one of their servants, long suppressed, resurfaces. But the photo of the woman also has an impact on Moody, and on another spirit photographer, Winter. Ultimately the photograph will lead to a quest by Moody and Winter to find out what happened to her, a quest that takes them into Reconstruction, the underground railroad, the swamps and bayous of Louisiana, and beyond.

This book took me in an entirely different direction than I expected. I expected the story of a charlatan (which Moody was) but he also believed. There are so many connections and misdirections and mysteries in this book it can get confusing, but it is also impossible to put down. You just want to know....to know what happened to the woman, to know about the various connections and interconnections. It's an elegant piece of writing with an intricate and complex story line that will keep you riveted. Definitely a good read!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a really interesting read. There is a lot of historical detail in it. The descriptions of the scenery are sufficient to transport you to the locations. The magic feel of the atmosphere and the claims in the book all add to a suspense that held my attention the whole way through. I found everything about this story fascinating. I would definitely recommend this book and I hope that Jon Michael Varese writes many more.