Is it right to use a lie to tell the truth?

This is the dilemma for Cora Page as she sits in a séance circle in the Lincoln White House, just twenty-two years old, scandalously divorced, and one of the most famous women of her day.

A Spiritualist, Cora relies on the voices of spirit guides, deceased friends, and unfamiliar others whose voices only she can hear. Appearing on stage before huge audiences from New York to New Orleans, Cora lectures while in a trance, repeating the comfort and advice of these otherworldly helpers.

Unlucky in marriage, Cora is fortunate in her circle of friends. Among them are reformers Sojourner Truth and Sophia Winslow; women whose experiences of being Black in America could not be more surprising or different.

From the glamour of the limelight to darkened séance parlors, Cora moves among frauds, true believers, political radicals, and charlatans. She is tempted to use her fame and uncommon platform to express her personal ideals; replacing the words of the spirits with her own to advocate for marginalized peoples. Yet she is wary of falsehoods, and only too familiar with the hidden motives that often come with good intentions.

Navigating tragedy and the tumultuous years of the Civil War, Cora's beliefs about her mission evolve. With the help of friends, both spectral and corporeal, her own voice triumphs, and she learns that although the world of spirits may be strange, the land of the living is where the mysterious truly abounds.

Based on actual persons and events.

A designer, builder, historian and author, Jane Goodrich's life has always entwined with the history of others gone before.

Her debut novel, the acclaimed historical fiction The House at Lobster Cove, was written after she and her husband had rebuilt the lost shingle style masterpiece Kragsyde and learned its history was as extraordinary as its design.

The Seraph, her second novel, is another deeply researched work of historical literary prose that explores the nature of truth and falsehood based on the life of Cora Scott, a once-famous nineteenth century Spiritualist.

From her library in Kragsyde, now on an island off the coast of Maine, Jane is currently working on a collection of short stories inspired by a cadre of colorful characters who lived in the mountains of Vermont.

Jane Goodrich’s second novel, based on the true story of spiritualist CoraPage/Cora Carter/Cora Winslow/Cora Scott—a “trance beauty,” she was married four times—vividly evokes the mid-19th century milieu of spirit rappers, the men who exploited them, and the grieving people, mothers like Mary Greeley and Mary Todd Lincoln, who were desperate to believe in them and their ability to deliver to them the voices of their dead. Her cast of characters, including abolitionist-celebrities like Sojourner Truth and Jonathan Walker, is expertly costumed and situated in perfectly propped period rooms and lyceums—and in places like Mr. Mathew Brady’s daguerreotype studio. But this is not a historical novel for its own sake. As we meet people willingly blind to the truth and others shamelessly using their gifts for gain, we realize that this is a book that speaks to our own time, so rife with posers, fraudsters, conspiracy theorists, and distorters of facts. With its alternating points of view, some living, others dead, it is reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town—and like that play it is ultimately about coping with grief and loss. But Ms. Goodrich leaves plenty of room for hope. She also leaves it up to us to decide whether Cora, in speaking in the voices of others, loses her own voice, or if she finds her true one. Finally, this is a book about storytelling itself. As Cora wonders to herself: "Do we know what we think we know or is everything a bit of trickery?” After all, she says, "all stories get twisted in the telling." A wonderful book! - Jeanne Schinto, author