Not so long ago, in a country very much like England, a young bride is haunted. She is haunted, perhaps, by regret and misgiving, but mostly by the ghosts conjured by the husband she barely knows. And when Jane Shoringfield Lawrence begins conjuring on her own, she finds that the magic she sets out to right is so terribly wrong.

Jane is the titular heroine in Caitlin Starling’s latest dark novel, THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE. With a decrepit manor, a cabal of magicians, a simmering romance, some bloody scenes, and plenty of ghouls and shadows, this gothic tale arrives just in time for cozy yet spectral autumn reading.

"With a decrepit manor, a cabal of magicians, a simmering romance, some bloody scenes, and plenty of ghouls and shadows, this gothic tale arrives just in time for cozy yet spectral autumn reading."

Jane doesn’t really want to get married. But her guardians, the Cunninghams, are moving from Larrenton to Great Breltain’s capital city Camhurst, and she would like to stay behind and continue to work as a bookkeeper. She creates a list of eligible bachelors who may be open to a romance-free marriage of convenience that would allow her independence under the veil of propriety. “Marriage is, at heart, a business arrangement, not one of hearts or souls,” Jane insists the first time she meets Dr. Augustine Lawrence. Augustine is the first candidate on her marriage list, and their engagement is almost immediate. Before either commit to matrimony, Jane comes to Augustine’s surgery and assists with a horrific operation, removing a bizarre mass from the guts of a man who has torn his abdomen open.

It is mostly her calm in the face of the procedure that sways Augustine, and Jane sees in his business an opportunity to keep some challenging books and ledgers. Yet there is a spark of attraction between them as well. Jane’s condition of marriage is a certain level of freedom, yet Augustine’s condition that she never spend the night in his family manor, Lindridge Hall, makes her curious. When she is stranded in a storm after leaving Lindridge on her wedding night and is forced to go back there, she finds Augustine in a state of paranoia and distress.

Of course, Lindridge Hall is haunted. Jane is visited by the red-eyed specter of a woman named Elodie, and it is clear that Augustine is dealing with the unwanted, unliving guests as well. But what is his responsibility for the hauntings? The arrival of a group of magician-doctors at Lindridge answers some of Jane’s questions but raises many more. Who was Elodie? What does she want from Augustine and Jane? How common is the magic that Augustine and the other doctors traffic in, and how does it become a trap in the space between life and death? When Jane begins to explore the same magic, it has devastating effects, resulting in a fevered attempt to reverse the damage that has been done.

Starling’s novel starts strong. Jane is a compelling figure, and the world in which she lives --- a parallel to postwar England --- has the potential to be an exciting setting. But the imagined world isn’t necessary to tell the story, and beyond some place names, it doesn’t cement. Starling struggles a bit to explain her magic. Still, Lindridge Hall remains a classically creepy abode, and Jane is a fiercely self-sufficient character. The last section of the book dissolves into a hallucinatory horror as Jane attempts a magical marathon in order to save Augustine and free Elodie. The prose becomes muddied, and the plot gets a bit bogged down here. Nevertheless, some readers are sure to be swept up in the frantic description of Jane’s nightmarish ordeal.

THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE may not be Starling’s best outing, but it offers up enough love, guts and creative vision to keep gothic horror fans entertained.