This felt a little like a behind the scenes books.
Behind the scenes at the séances possibly.
A strange world to live in, nothing guaranteed, you're only as good as your last table .
It's always good to read about victoriana medium's and how the whole thing works.
An enjoyable way to spend a few hours

Mrs Wood is a respected Medium with many fashionable and titled clients. Its 1870s London, a time when many of her contemporaries are being uncovered as frauds. But Mrs Wood has worked hard to be where she is. Even her closest friends are unaware of the secrets of her difficult past, and when her investments falter, she worries about her ability to continue hosting her grandiose seances and retain her wealthy clients.
When Miss Finch appears on the scene, an ingenue, or so it seems, who wants to become Mrs Wood’s pupil, she sees an opportunity to regain centre-stage with a fresh, more youthful appeal.
The Other Side of Mrs Wood is a story skilfully unfurled. The reader is quietly received into an understanding of her skills, where the focus is on providing a service of kindness and entertainment for which special powers may or may not be required, and this, I think, is the strength of this novel. Cold reading is certainly a skill, one that was better kept under wraps in years gone by, when the art of fortune telling held more water than it does these days.
The characters feel solid and warm, happily much more so than the spirits they commune with, and throughout this reader felt firmly on the side of Mrs Wood in the face of her trials.

I loved the characters and the plot of the story, I will definitely be reading more from this author.

An original and quirky story of a group of mediums in the Victorian era and the tricks they get up to make a living. Mrs Woods , the main character is a combination of a business woman that is relying on Society to keep a roof over her head a a mother figure to the others living with her and the emergence of a down on her luck young lady turns her whole existence into peril, the irony I guess is that She didn’t see that happening. I loved the ending as I feel there could be another book .

I enjoyed this a great deal- an entertaining thriller set in the world of Victorian Spiritualism, refreshing in its choice of an older female lead. I especially liked how Mrs Wood herself wasn't perfect- she's definitely a snob and self absorbed enough that, at least at the beginning, you're kind of hoping for her downfall, though when it does come you're fond enough of her by then to view it with a lot of sympathy.

A fun, quick read. Reccomended!

Victorian era is my favourite historical period, and I love the Spiritualist movement, so I knew I needed to read Lucy Barker's debut novel! Set in the 1870s London, we follow Mrs Wood, the city's celebrated medium whose excellent seances gather many of those who want to connect with the Other Side. When Mrs Wood takes on a young girl, Emmie Finch, as her student, things begin to change around Mrs Wood and her great circle...

As the famous medium herself has said, illusion is everything and Lucy Barker lures us into Victorian London, the women's schemes and rivalry - and spirits aplenty! I really enjoyed this story; I was mesmerised from the very first page. I adored Mrs Wood, her story and journey, and her faithful friend, Sarah Newman. The Other Side of Mrs Wood is a historical fiction novel with tons of humour, it's about feuds and keeping up appearances, but Barker also writes about friendship, honesty and loyalty, which really moved me and I felt it added so much more to this story. Victorian London and the Spiritualism were so vivid, I was immediately transported to that time. Excellent storytelling! The Other Side of Mrs Wood is one of the most exciting and original debuts of 2023!