Seance on a Summer's Night

By: Josh Lanyon

Narrated by: Matt Haynes

Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

Theater critic Artemus Bancroft isn’t sure what to expect when his aunt summons him home to California with vague but urgent pleas about being unable to cope with “the situation”. The situation turns out to be the apparent haunting of Green Lanterns Inn - along with alarming rumors that long-suffering Auntie Halcyone may have murdered her philandering husband. In fact, the rumors seem to have been started by the late Mr. Hyde himself - from beyond the grave.

©2019 Josh Lanyon (P)2019 Josh Lanyon

A classic Josh Lanyon mystery

I would say that Seance on a Summer’s Night is a cozy mystery rather than a romance or suspense. There is a romantic interest, but if you are looking for steam you won’t find that here. There are also some instances where your heart might beat a little faster when the intensity is set to max, but the overall feel of this book was a cozy amateur sleuth mystery.

Theatre critic Artemus Bancroft is called home to Green Lanterns Inn by his aunt asking him for help. When he gets there the inn is empty of guests and there’s a heavy unsettling feeling in the air. He’s told that the spirit of his aunt’s late husband Ogden is roaming the grounds seeking revenge. Since the haunting started there’s been no guests and no employees have stayed beyond one night – part from the new gardener, the housekeeper and the handyman.

Artemus is sceptic of the hauntings to say the least. However, not long after arriving at the inn unexplainable things starts to happen. To start he keep hearing footsteps on the floors above him – but there’s never anyone there. So when Roma, a medium comes to the inn for their usual séances to communicate with Ogden he reluctantly joins in. The séances are eerie and you never quite know if they are genuine or a hoax – or a combination of the two.

The mystery was a solid one and I would say had all the trademarks of Lanyon’s. I won’t go into details and spoil the book for you, as you’ll have to experience it for yourselves. The big reveal in the end wasn’t a surprising one, but I didn’t mind that. I still enjoyed the investigating and after all the journey was the important part.

I really enjoyed listening to Matt Haynes, loved his voice. He captured the feel of the book, the eerie feeling of the inn, the spooky noises and the séances. He had great pacing and enunciation but more importantly his narration matched the happenings of the book. At times he distinguished between the different characters with different voices, not all of them mind you, but some. Other times he narrated them all with the same voice and only distinguished between narration and conversation. Overall Haynes is a narrator I'd happily listen to again in the future.

Seance on a Summer’s Night was I would say a classic Lanyon mystery. Full of twists and turns, interesting people and with a great sense of place. Haynes brought it all to life and made the experience a pleasant one.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Enjoy the Ride!

What fun! I had a great time getting to know these characters. Once again, Josh Lanyon does not disappoint.

Enjoyable Lanyon Mystery

Creative characters and a fun mystery, and best of all is Lanyon's trademark wit... I needed me some of that. Beautifully written.

Honestly, the narrator was just okay. He made a few odd pronunciation errors, and his voice wasn't my favorite.

Whelmed

Good but not rave worthy, a good way to bust time commuting and with slow work. Wasn't underwhelmed or overwhelmed.

Great story. Great narration.

Another warm fuzzy stand alone mystery by Josh Lanyon.

Okay, this was actually cold, dark, rainy, and deadly. Yet somehow still comfortable.

As usual, there is just enough twisting of the plot to leave the reader guessing who actually did whatever had been done.

Can't wait for another one of these, and I will be looking for more books narrated by Matt Haynes.

enjoyed it

Would I listen to it again: yes
Did the story keep me engaged: yes
Was I invested in the characters: yes

Story comment: I typically enjoy Josh Lanyon's stories. This one is an entertaining 'cosy mystery' more so than any kind of real 'suspense'. I enjoyed Artemus's snark and felt his frustration as he tries to piece together what is "really" going on.

Narrator comment: I enjoyed Matt Haynes's narration and think he's done a good job embodying Artemus and the variety of supporting characters in Seance on a Summers Night. I had no problem distinguishing who was speaking and the rhythm, inflections and intonations all worked to bring the book to life.

Spooky

Story: 8
Writing: 9
First MC: 9
Second MC: 8
Secondary characters: 6
Mystery: 6
Sexual tension: 5
Humor: 5
Hotness: 4
Product placement: 5
Ridiculousness: 3
Annoying: 4
Audio: 10
To re-read: 10

A great, atmospheric tale

When I was a kid, I watched a movie called "Madhouse" starring John Larroquette and Kirstie Alley, about a married couple who took in a slew of irritating houseguests. Eventually, their frustration boiled over to the point where they actually physically threw all of them out of the house, in various funny and ironic ways. This is how I felt about the supporting cast of Seance on a Summer's Night: every single one of them, except the main character and his love interest, needed to be tossed out on their butt in as painful and humiliating a way as possible.

I'm not making an exception for the protagonist's Aunt Halcyone, whom he clearly adores. She may be the least obnoxious of the characters, but she could still use a good slap in the face. I have to trust that at some point in her past she showed herself worthy of Artemus's affections. The other characters--Halcyone's sister-in-law, the village psychic, the butler, his daughter--were even worse.

It may sound like I'm complaining, but to be honest these are all characters that I loved to hate. And something that kept the frustration at bay was that Artemus was just as frustrated as I was and dealt with them all accordingly with a good deal of snark--not the over-the-top, mean-spirited snarkiness of a good deal of gay fictional characters, but rather a healthy dose of dry humor and entirely appropriate condescension. Artemus is a wonderful character; The protagonists of Lanyon's standalones are sometimes a bit hit (as in "Murder Takes the High Road") or miss (as in "Stranger on the Shore"), but Artemus is a very welcome addition to her canon. His love interest is also likable, if a bit more mysterious (at first) than most. For a good portion of the novel, Artemus likes him but doesn't trust him, which is a dynamic that could have been poorly executed, but thankfully wasn't.

The central mystery is fantastic, as in virtually all Lanyon novels, even more tantalizing than most, and I had no clue what was going on even though as I listen a second time I recognize the foreshadowing. Occasionally Lanyon's protagonists are terrible sleuths (*cough* Jason West *cough*), but Artemus is smart and persistent. A skeptic dropped into the middle of a convincing ghost story, I enjoyed reasoning things out with him.

Matt Haynes is a good narrator, and I liked his voice and inflection, generally, but he has an odd way of over-enunciating the letter T that sounds a bit affected, though I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he's getting into the character of Artemus, who is a bit affected. Less forgivable are the changeable pronunciation of the name "Liana," which he pronounces the majority of the time as "LEE-uh-nuh" but occasionally as "Lee ANN uh," and more than a few mispronunciations of some relatively common words--enough that I definitely noticed.

If you're looking for a good Josh Lanyon standalone, Seance on a Summer's Night is definitely recommended. It's not as good, for me, as "Murder Takes the High Road," but I think it's better than "Jefferson Blythe, Esquire," "Stranger on the Shore," or "Murder Between the Pages." Definitely upper tier in the Lanyon canon.

Absolutely love it!

I have been an avid reader of Josh Lanyon's novels. This one, like the others, did not disappoint! Thrilling, filled with mysteries and suspense, and of course lovely romance!