The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson (Belinda Lyons-Lee, Transit Lounge)

Ghosts from the past awaken strange obsessions in Belinda Lyons-Lee’s second novel, The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson, a gothic retelling of the stranger-than-fiction history of Robert Louis Stevenson’s inspiration for his greatest works. The novel opens with a seance that uncovers a horrific memory from the past, forcing the Stevensons to reckon with the real and imagined things that haunt them. Told from Fanny Stevenson’s point of view, the revolver-carrying US divorcee recounts her experiences as a working writer and artist, her relationship with Robert Louis, and the terrible events that compelled him to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Fanny’s wry, no-nonsense voice is a highlight of the novel, which brings a fresh perspective as an outsider and acts as a strong counterpoint to the aristocratic cast of charming charlatans, would-be disapprovers and true believers in the many odd fascinations of the 1800s. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson is a clever mix of well-researched history and ghost story that revels in sensational details of Victorian-era spiritualism and the darker history of Edinburgh. With its underlying sense of the macabre and the various hauntings threaded throughout, the book will appeal to fans of the Stevensons’ works and classic Gothic tales, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and to readers of women-centred historical fiction, including Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kathryn Wheaton Grierson is a library operations officer and aspiring writer based on Kaurna land. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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