The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey is historical fiction mixed with paranormal and horror aspects. It is a dual timeline story split between the mid- and the late-nineteenth century. Kathleen Kaufman is a story about two women who share a psychical connection across time as they fight for survival against those who seek to exploit their gifts.
Tavish Laith travels the Scottish countryside hawking his daughter’s psychic abilities to eke out a precarious living for the two of them. Eventually the daughter, Nairna, is recruited into a Scottish spiritualist group who hone her skills and introduce her to various psychic institutions who are eager to study her abilities. She causes such a to-do that she is sent to America. There, she is renamed Nora Grey and is again studied by various psychic groups.
Nairna’s psychic skill is inherited from her pregnant paternal grandmother, Lottie, who, when her husband is killed in a mining accident, tries to get the compensation for his death that she is entitled to. Instead, she is whisked away to an insane asylum where she is experimented on by the so-called physicians that run the asylum. The two women become each other’s spirit guides.
The Entirely True Story is a harsh look at the lack of women’s rights or medical rights during the nineteenth century as well as the fascination with spiritualism.
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The Entirely True Story of the Fantastical Mesmerist Nora Grey (Kensington, July 29, 2025) is available through:
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