The Eidola Project An Eidola Project Novel
Supernatural
The Wild Rose Press, Inc
November 18, 2019
It's 1885 and a drunk and rage-filled Nigel Pickford breaks up a phony medium's séance. A strange twist of fate soon finds him part of a team investigating the afterlife.
The Eidola Project is an intrepid group of explorers dedicated to bringing the light of science to that which has been feared, misunderstood, and often manipulated by charlatans. They are a psychology professor, his assistant, an African-American physicist, a sideshow medium, and now a derelict, each possessing unique strengths and weaknesses.
Called to the brooding Hutchinson Estate to investigate rumored hauntings, they encounter deadly supernatural forces and a young woman driven to the brink of madness.
Will any of them survive?
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
When I was given this book to review it was without any knowledge of what it was about, there was no description for me to read and I was unsure of the genre. I was really not sure if this was a book I would like but I can honestly say I didn’t like it I loved it. Although I had no clue in advance about the story I was glued to the book from the first page and stayed glued till the end.
Sarah Bradbury is a young girl who has never known what it was like to feel loved by her parents and at the age of five she spilled the chamber pot and was forced to use the outhouse even if it was the middle of the night. One particular night she ventured out and came face to face with a young girl who had disappeared, only the appearance was a ghost bloody and gruesome. The next day Sarah found the body and news traveled near and far about her ability to see ghosts and find the dead.
The owner of the Dodgerton’s Carnival and Traveling Freak Show came knocking on the Bradbury’s door with an offer of $500 to make Sarah a part of the show, her parents couldn’t get her out of the door fast enough. Sarah was put into the hands of Madame Tsurista Vodoma the carnival’s medium and it didn’t take long for her to realize that Sarah was the real deal. For nine years Sarah was with the carnival until the night that Madame Vodoma died and Dodgerton decided that Sarah was all his body and soul. With the help of the other’s at the carnival who looked after her she managed to get away and with nowhere to go she went to Harvard to find Dr. William James a professor of psychology and philosophy who is researching the supernatural. He has started a group called Eidola Project and Sarah is sure that he would understand her.
Dr. James is thrilled to have Sarah especially after she proves she is legitimate and not a fake. Part of the group is Annabell Douglas his assistant and Dr. Edgar Gilpin who was born into slavery on a plantation in South Carolina. Edgar had help getting into Harvard and earned a degree in Physics but he couldn’t get any help finding a job. When he went for an interview, he went unnoticed, he was black in a white world and no one would touch him. It was Dr. James who offered him a position with the Eidola Project recognizing his importance to the project.
There were a great many different storylines and characters in this book some who played a significant part and some not so much. One such character was Nigel Pickford a man with visions, a vision that twenty years ago showed the slaughter of his men during the war, a vision he could do nothing about stopping. Now he is a drunk, liquor the only thing that keeps the nightmares at bay.
Sarah had a nightmare where Nigel was the one saving her life and it was because of her determination to find him and bring him in that everyone else agreed which wasn’t easy once they got a good look and smell of him.
The ending was quite a surprise and I look forward to more from the Eidola Project in their search for all things that go bump in the night.
