The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson

 The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson

Reviewed By  Nan van Dissel       August 20, 2025

 

Author  Belinda Lyons-Lee

Distributor:      Transit Lounge
ISBN:                 978-1-923023-33-8
Publisher:         Transit Lounge
Release Date:   July 2025  

   Website:   https://transitlounge.com.au/shop/the-haunting-of-mr-and-mrs-stevenson/

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Belinda Lyons-Lee has done Gothic historical- fiction more than justice with this her second book; not only is it a page turning retelling of the stranger than fiction history of Robert Louis Stephenson’s inspiration for one of his best known and greatest works, but this narrative also cleverly merges fact and fiction. While she has used factual events, dates, times and people of history, this is still a historical fiction novel.

Narrated by married American novelist and artist Mrs. Fanny Osborne, who in 1876 met Robert Louis Stephenson in Gretz, an ‘artist colony of sorts’ south of Paris and after developing a deep affection for him they were married in 1880.  Due to Louis’s poor health the couple moved to Bournemouth, in the south of England, where it was hoped his health would improve. Since childhood Louis had always been haunted by the wardrobe made by the notorious William Brodie, a Scottish cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild, and Edinburgh city councillor; Louis decided to write his next book about Brodie, who maintained a secret life as a burglar in order to support his mistresses and to fund a gambling addiction in the late 1700s.

In Bournemouth the Stephensons form a friendship with the Shelleys (son and daughter in law of poet Bysshe and Mary author of Frankenstein). After dinner Lady Jane Shelley, who is a spiritualist, encourages the visitors to join her in a séance to summon up Mary, but to Louis’s distress, she conjures up the charming charlatan Eugene Chantrelle, an erstwhile friend in the Louis’s past. Why does this have such a discomforting effect on Louis and Fanny and how is the haunted sinister wardrobe connected to their uneasiness?

‘The Haunting of Mr. & Mrs. Stephenson’ is a clever mix of thoroughly researched history, a gothic mystery and the story of Fanny and Louis’s marriage and romance. This addictive, captivating and atmospheric narrative is a must for those with an interest in Victorian- era spiritualism and the darker history of Edinburgh. The author’s aim was to create a story, which is illuminating, entertaining and transporting; she has certainly done this!

Fiction, General, Historical