Living with the Dead

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The concluding volume of the trilogy, Living with the Dead is set in and around Toulouse, shortly after the death in Paris of Jane de La Vaudère. Madame Louvot is now serving as Paul Furneret’s housekeeper. He is living close to an old convent leased by the residents of which apparently have orders not to communicate with him, although they supply gods from their farm and their distillery to him via Madame Louvot.

Seven years later, Paul Furneret is visited in his Toulousan cottage by Victor Marvaud and Gaston Lambrunet, who are keen to persuade him to return to Paris. Their visit coincides with a “coup” in the cult launched by Madame Zosima and now operated as quasi-Fouierist feminist “phalanstery.” Zosima is deposed, and her "convent" is taken over by a “trinity” led by Lilith, who have their own ideas regarding the supposed revelations of anterior lives. Also visiting are the Megisters, an English couple who owns both the convent and Paul’s cottage..

Lilith has researched Paul’s background and discovered information that might help him to identify his mysterious “guardian angel” and to decipher the mystery of his supernatural ability, which she plans to exploit. Paul, who no longer needs the help of hypnotists to contact the dead, begins to develop new psychic powers, but not the ones Lilith sought to use.

Those psychic phenomena have unintended fatal results, leaving Paul in no doubt as to the dangers inherent in his powers, confronting him with a stark challenge and an awkward dilemma...

Cover by Daniele Serra

Published by Black Coat Press in November 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61227-902-2

Review by Sally Startup

No longer in Paris, Paul Furnuret lives in an isolated mountain cottage near Toulouse. He feels psychically protected. His portraits of Juliette, Jane and his embryonic sister are there to keep him company, as is Madame Louvot, who now acts as his housekeeper. However, Zosima’s all-female cult have taken over an old convent building nearby. There are rumours of conflict within their community. At the same time, various ‘alpinists’ are intent on exploring the Great Cleft, a rock fissure reputed to be bottomless.

It is 1909. Paul has become quite successful as a painter. Even without the aid of hypnosis, he is almost able to enter trance states at will, just by practising his art. And yet, he has more to discover regarding the workings of his talent and his own deeper nature. Both Madame Louvot and Zosima still fear that he is in some danger.

The arrival of the young English inheritors of the legal rights to the mountain, only adds to the atmosphere of impending change. Soon there are a number of unsettling revelations. As Paul learns more of the intricacies of everyone’s psychic and imaginary landscapes, his attitude remains kind. Nevertheless, he cannot help but feel threatened and vulnerable.

Yet Paul is an artist. When he finally learns some of his own deepest truths, he believes himself capable of surviving. He may, however, need the support of all of his friends, including those who are now dead.

In this concluding novel of a trilogy, there are visionary hints of the marvellous and complicated depths to which scientific exploration leads. The novel brings science, superstition, pseudohistory and folklore together. All within the imagination of an artist.

The Brian Stableford Website