The historical novel is set in 1915 Boston, where a young woman, Sybil Allston stands on the edge of a new century, torn between the loss of her mother and sister on the Titanic three years earlier, and a new love. She is driven to reach out to the occult in hopes of finding answers to her questions in the depths of a crystal ball.
Sibyl is living a life of slow disintegration with her aloof father and scandal-prone brother in a extravagant house in Boston’s Back Bay. After her brother is mysteriously expelled from Harvard, a strange young woman shows up and tries to unravel Sibyl’s family, which is hanging on by a thread. Yet, when an acquaintance from her past, a young psychology professor by the name of Benton Derby shows up, Sibyl enlist his help to solve an investigation about the secrets in her family. As the mystery unfolds, Benton and Sibyl’s flirtatious past wafts to the surface, making them question whether there might be more to their relationship then what is reflected in the crystal ball. From Boston’s seedy opium-filled dens in Chinatown, to the high life in Back Bay, The House of Velvet and Glass brings together romance, the supernatural, and a storyline filled with suspense that makes this novel so deliciously enticing.
From start to finish, Howe brings the period of the novel to life with flashback from the decks of the Titanic to the 1920’s Boston streets. In her last novel, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, Howe dabbled with the occult in Salem, Mass. Yet, Howe takes it a step further in her new novel, and calls on the occult to create a novel with mystery and intrigue. However, some readers who have read Deliverance Dane may find that the occult is more sparse in The House of Velvet and Glass then the previous novel. Another thing that Howe’s new novel has that Deliverance Dane was lacking is the historical detail that connects the novel together. Howe does a superb job covering the Titanic history, as well as historical information from the early 20th century in a different perspective, giving the reader a chance to connect the historical mystery together before making one final twist at the end. The lavish detail, and rich character development, makes this novel an interesting read from start to finish. I would highly recommend The House of Velvet and Glass to readers who like mysteries with a little bit of everything thrown into one novel.
