The Sweet by and by — Jeanne Mackin

When Helen West is contracted to write a definitive essay on Maggie Fox, the founder of American Spiritualism, she begins to wonder if departed spirits do indeed return to comfort their loved ones. After all, Maggie Fox made a living by convincing people that the dead spoke through her. By incorporating tricks such as rigging apples on strings for knocking noises, her seances attracted the likes of Horace Greeley and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln.Throughout the course of her research, Helen, recovering from the death of her lover, develops a strange, unexpected kinship with Maggie. When she hears knocking in her old farmhouse in upstate New York, she can`t help but question if it is her old lover attempting to communicate with her.Is death the end? To what lengths will people go to comfort themselves after the death of a loved one? Helen confronts these questions and others in a captivating, haunting novel that effortlessly weaves together two stories that take place over one hundred years apart.AUTHORBIO: Jeanne Mackin is the author of several historical novels including The Frenchwoman and Dreams of Empire. She lives in upstate New York and teaches writing at Ithaca College.