Séance on a Wet Afternoon

Hoping for notoriety, a struggling psychic kidnaps a child Most so-called psychics disgust Myra Savage. She has no patience for their chintz and cheap tricks, for her power is real. Myra can see into other people’s minds, can even sometimes sense the future, but she has never yet communicated with the other side. For that she needs the cooperation of great psychics, but she lacks the stature to attract their attention. To satisfy this burning need for fame, she and her husband concoct The Plan. Bill snatches a six-year-old girl from her schoolyard and pastes together a letter demanding ransom. After a few days of citywide panic, Myra will lead the police to the girl and the money, and all of London will know her name. When a criminal can see the future, what could possibly go wrong? “A startlingly different crime novel.” -The New York Times “Back street crime-very true to life.” -Sunday Citizen “A must for every mystery fan.” -Sun Journal Mark McShane (b. 1930) was an Australian author of satire, suspense novels, and crime fiction. Born in Sydney to a family with Gypsy roots, he traveled the world for the first three decades of his life. In 1960, he settled on the island of Mallorca, in the Mediterranean, and decided to write fiction. His first novel, The Straight and the Crooked, appeared that year, but it was his third effort, S ance on a Wet Afternoon, for which he is best known. The story of a strange pair of kidnappers, it was made into a well regarded film in 1964, and has also been adapted as an opera. His most well known characters are the eccentric Detective Sergeant Norman Pink, and Appleton Porter, an unlikely spy whose often comic adventures McShane chronicled under the pseudonym Marc Lovell.