The Evening Spider

Mystery, murder and supernatural entities are at the crux of The Evening Spider, a gothic suspense story by Emily Arsenault. Based partly on an actual crime committed in the late 19th century, the story revolves around two women who live in different centuries but have resided in the same house. In 1885, Frances Barnett tells her story via journal entries written from inside the Northampton Lunatic Hospital in Massachusetts, where her well-meaning husband, Matthew, has locked her away. She slowly reveals why she's been institutionalized, starting with her distress at learning she was pregnant--she'd never contemplated that possible aspect of married life--and her subsequent difficulties adjusting to life as a new mother.

Meanwhile, in 2014, Abby Bernaki is having difficulties of her own as a new mother. Although she loves her daughter dearly, the sameness of her days presses in on her, forcing her to remember events from her past that she'd just as soon forget. When odd noises and weird coincidences take place in the old house she lives in with her husband, Abby begins an elaborate search into the checkered past of the house's previous owners.

The Evening Spider doesn't quite fall into the pure mystery genre that Arsenault (The Broken Teaglass) usually writes, as it contains ghostly and supernatural elements. However, with its basis in a real crime, including excerpts from news stories from that era, readers can take delight in Arsenault's highly inventive imagination as she deftly interweaves the stories of these two young mothers searching for answers. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer

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