If you are looking for a spooky, historical, and wonderfully immersive read- then look no further. We follow a skeptical professor of engineering as he takes a spiritual journey to find answers regarding odd events that are taking place within his house. While I found the professor to be extremely unlikable, I also felt that the writer did an amazing job helping the reader get into the head of what seems like a narcissistic and selfish character. We follow his journey to scientifically prove that the odd events are easily explainable, but along the way find out things may not be what they seem! I honestly was shocked many times throughout the book and felt the ending was a perfect ending to a cozy and haunting read!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy.

This took me far too long to get into reading, so although it had a wonderfully macabre ending it took too much to get to that point to really feel wholly successful. However, that aside, this was a story that I wanted to love and which I think many will.
The Spirit Engineer is set in the years following the sinking of the Titanic and it focuses on the growing trend for seances and communing with the spirits of the afterlife. Our main character is engineer William Crawford, a put-upon man with ambition who finds himself caught up in an experiment to prove that a young girl who claims to commune with the dead is fake.
The establishment of the idea and getting to the focus of the seances took longer than I felt comfortable with. It gave us a relatively good indicator of the character of William, but as the book picks up pace and we learn the truth of these strange events I felt duped as I’d really not seen the signs of this myself.
An intriguing book that I’d like to read again to see what I had missed first time round. Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

My apologies I haven’t yet got to this book as life has got in the way. But I will hopefully get to it soon and leave a review in all the relevant places.

This is a wonderfully atmospheric piece of historical fiction about a Professor of engineering who becomes involved in debunking a family that deals in seances. Creepy and Gothic with some flashes of wit but also deeply touching and thought provoking. Recommended.

I originally requested this book because i’d heard it’s terrifying & will cause paranormal activity to people who read it - who wouldn’t be intrigued by that. I didn’t really find it very scary though :(. I appreciated the plot and the characters, i can’t find a fault with it! It just didn’t take with me. i would absolutely LOVE to see this as a film though, i would adore the shit out of it… make it happen pls?

This perhaps was a mismatch of expectations on my part. I found The start of the Spirit Engineer was ploddingly slow in plot, and I found myself having to force myself to reach the middle of the book. (I was sorely tempted to DNF it at multiple times when I kept falling asleep while reading it).

That being said, the last half of the book kept me relatively rapt in attention. The pacing did improve in the second half of the book, and I did find myself more and more intrigued by the mystery of the novel. As Professor Crawford became embroiled in the publicizing the medium's abilities and calling himself the Spirit Engineer, it was fascinating to watch Crawford interact with other characters. The strength of this novel is that as a reader I too began to question if these interactions with the spirit world were real.

The climax of the novel resolves loose ends tidily and ultimately explains that the narrator was a largely unreliable one. However, I didn't feel that rush of satisfaction in completing a book when all the mysteries are concluded, and I would chalk it up to a mismatch of expectations.

Thank you to Netgalley and Duckworth books for providing me with a copy of The Spirit Engineer in exchange for a honest review.

When engineering professor William Crawford discovers his wife has been attending seances under the guide of attending church meetings, he is determined to prove the seances are fake. Crawford spares no expense in his research and abides by the sentiment that “the ends justify the means.”
Aside from the blatant disregard for fellow human welfare, The Spirit Engineer is an enjoyable, dip-your-toes-into-the-spooky-season read. Really got me in the mood for fall and Halloween!

Just finished reading this book at 2am - I just had to keep reading!

In the early 20th Century there was a craze for spiritualism, made all the more intense by the horrendous losses of the second world war. And society was divided - some people wanted desperately to believe, others called the mediums charlatans and dedicated themselves to unmasking them, And then there's William Jackson Crawford, the Spirit Engineer - who started out as a man of science, wanting to debunk local medium Kathleen Goligher, and then began to search for a scientific proof of the spirit world.

Let's start with the elephant in the room. The main character, William Jackson Crawford, is not your classic hero. He's vain, weak, prissy and misogynistic. But that's kind of the point - it's his vanity and weakness that leads him to follow the path he does and I found it fascinating and entertaining to explore the world through his eyes. I was also hooked by AJ West's brilliant atmosphere building - the creepiness of the seances, William's torment. His writing takes us completely and utterly into another place and another time and gave me goose-pimples. Recommended!

I had high hopes for this debut novel, and it did not, in any way, disappoint. A gripping page turner that drew me in from page one and did not let me go until it finished. I look forward to reading more from this author, i am a firm fan

{4.5 stars}

"Oh, Darwin, Darwin, Darwin,' said Stoupe. 'The very enemy of magic himself. Very well then, perhaps not butterflies but even Mr Darwin would struggle to explain where we go when we die. He might be up there now, in fact, sitting on a wooly mammoth and thinking himself a perfect clown."

----------------------------

This book intrigued me with the concept but blew me away with the execution. William is an engineering professor who is frustrated by his wife's belief in communicating with spirits. She lost her brother in the sinking of the Titanic and he finds out she's been secretly attending seances to try to contact him. When the family is rocked by another tragedy, William decides to throw his scientific efforts into determining if the seances are real or just a hoax. His work becomes famous as he begins to believe that communing with spirits just may be real. His passion grows into a frenzy and he is shaken when he meets none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini who don't think his experiments are as clean as he thinks. From there we follow his descent into madness as he is haunted by these spirits and whether they are real or not.

There were definitely moments along the way that I wondered where things were going and whether I would like that direction but I was equally intrigued by what William was experiencing and wanted to figure it out. I loved the scientific approach to his experiments and how we were along for the ride with him through each trial. I did figure out one of the twists but the other one gobsmacked me. I loved the ending, the last quarter was just perfectly done.

This one is a perfect creepy read for spooky season. I especially loved the fact that this was based on a true story, so it felt like while I was entertained I was learning a fun piece of history.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy. All opinions above are my own.

The Spirit Engineer is a cracking gothic thriller, tense, at times creepy and quite convincing in the dynamic of the central characters - as unlikeable and potentially untrustworthy as they appear!
Crawford is particularly fascinating - his self-centred belief in his own importance and discoveries make him intensely unlikeable but compelling.

Great autumnal reading.

I received an early copy of this book in exchange for my independent honest review. Thank you.
Firstly the cover and the blurb totally draws you in. I could not wait to read this gothic debut. I find it a difficult one to review though.
It is set in Edwardian Belfast, shortly after the First World war and the Titanic disaster. Society are looking for answers,many grief stricken and wanting to believe their loved ones have moved on to a better place. Spiritualism has never been more popular, a place of comfort or a place where the vulnerable are taken advantage of?
William our main protagonist is a man of science, who is very much absorbed in his own academic world and forever searching for acclaim in his work. This leaves little time for normal family life. He comes across as cold towards his wife and children, he doesn't know how to relate to them. His scientific and atmospheric mind gets in the way of normal everyday life. I did feel sorry for his wife and children. As he finds success by proving The afterlife does exist, he becomes more self absorbed and even more unlikable.
The writing style soon draws you in. It is very atmospheric and the tension the author builds, especially during the 'seances' and spiritual experiments is explosive. However for me it started to feel a little overdone and far fetched in places. One could argue this did put the question to mind is this all real or just a scam?
The experiments were a little drawn out and I found my attention wavering a little at times. Then suddenly comes the twist and the tension soars again. For me, the reveal left me with more questions than answers.
There is no doubt this is an excellent debut and this author can create atmosphere and tension. Perfect for Halloween. I didn't feel the hype quite as much as everyone else. That said I cannot wait to see what this author has in store next!

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

oh my goodness, this is such a sweet book! i really really enjoyed this one! it is such a sweet and heartwarming book. please pick it up as soon as you can! thank you so much, net galley!!

Belfast in interwar time. The Crawford family, the husband a professor of engineering, a wife and three children. So far, so normal. Domestic life, middle class with more status than money and plenty of social aspirations. But then we learn that the wife’s brother, by all accounts a wastrel, drowned with the Lusitania. Shortly after, the Crawford’s son dies. Enter the Goligher family with daughter Kathleen, a “genuine medium”. With Professor Crawford a scoffing sceptic and his wife desperately wanting spirits to exist, a delicious to-ing and fro-ing develops. But what if the staunch sceptic turns out to be superbly suited to be a medium himself?

Following the many deaths of soldiers in WW1 and with child mortality still high, these interwar years saw a surge in the belief in spritualism: to be once more in the albeit ephemeral presence of a loved one. And waiting in the wings were an army of fraudsters, ready to fleece gullible souls.
Indeed, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in the book as a believer in spiritualism (who had been falling prey to the Cottingley Fairies hoax). He adresses Crawford: ‘The movement has been waiting a long time for a scientific mind such as yours, Professor,’ he said. ‘With your help, we shall light the fire of enthusiasm on the twin altars of imagination and knowledge. Then we might finally expose those sceptics and scoffers for the cretins they are.” Also present at this meeting is the famous escapologist Harry Houdini who was a pronounced sceptic. William Crawford may well have been based on the magician William S. Marriot, who met Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and was himself a master of metacognitive illusion.
An interesting concept, based on the real-life medium Kathleen Goligher, nestled cleverly in the dichotomy of scepticism and belief.

The main character is a total narcissist. Initially, that was tolerable. But the scene where he brutalized the medium, had her vaginally searched, and almost killed her with restraints was just too much. I stopped reading half way through the book. I didn't sign up to read a book that's abusive to women.

Thank you to Duckworth Books via Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This will be the perfect read during the upcoming spooky season. With that being said, I struggled while reading it. I was waiting to get hooked but I never got to that point. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace, because I usually love gothic, spooky fiction and other reviewers are raving about it! I struggled with the slow-burn and all the different characters and their roles/importance in the story and some of the first half felt like filler-pages; however, I really enjoyed the complex protagonist of William Jackson Crawford and his descent into madness and West’s elegant way of writing as well as his use of major historical events and cameos from famous characters that (finally) brought the story forward. The second half of the book was my favourite as it was fast-paced and kept me on guessing until the end.

I wasn’t aware of it being based on the true story of Crawford and Goligher when I read it (I rarely read the entire blurb) and I don’t know if that knowledge would’ve changed my feelings about it, but it definitely made me want to look it up myself!

I found this book very hard to get into, mainly because of the protagonist, and partly due to the writing style. Everything about the blurb appealed to me, and it sounded like a book I would really enjoy, but unfortunately I struggled with it and didn't reach the end.

Many thanks to the author and publisher for the chance to read the book.

The Spirit Engineer by A J West
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery & Thriller
Publisher: Duckworth Books
Publish Date: 07 October 2021

Star Rating 5/5

Historical Fiction is one of my favorite genres and I love discovering new people in history through it! In this book, we meet real-life Professor William Jackson Crawford (The Spirit Engineer) and real-life medium Kathleen Goligher. West tells their story in a compelling fictional story but like all the best Historic Fictions I ended up googling the real-life characters and felt disappointed there isn’t as much as I would like out in the World Wide Web which, makes me like this author's dedications more. True imagination and research through dusty archives must have been done.

The characters' interactions and dialogue were musical the atmosphere darkening and the journey of descent into madness perfect. It made me wonder at certain times who was sane and if I was… I loved the connection to the titanic and how West made me love and despise characters as the plot thickened. Unfortunately, I can't go into a rant without spilling spoilers but there was one character in particular that made my stomach churn with its selfishness and ego.

I am really interested in seeing what this author produced next, especially as this is a debut novel. I have my fingers secretly crossed that West turns his attention to Harry Houdini. I would love to read his take on him especially as the character appeared in this book, briefly, but with a large impression. I desperately hope Houdini is next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Duckworth Books, for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I requested this book from Netgalley purely based on the cover. I didn’t even read the blurb… so I only learned when it came to the acknoledgements that it is based on a true story. Which then again lead me to the author’s website and his interview with the descendants of both William and Kathleen, alongside a whole heap of research he has done for this book. Which only made me more intrigued by this fascinating story.

A reoccuring message throughout the book is Death is a beginning, and so we start the book of with William’s suicide. So we know the story isn’t going to end well… But it doesn’t spoil anything. Although we do get an inkling throughout the book as to the why, we are never certain of it till about 90% into the book. And it is still unclear as to why the real William killed himself (Arthur Conan Doyle actually speculates that it was his final big experiment regarding the realness of spiritualism).

Then we move back in time to his introduction to spiritualism. William isn’t a very nice person to begin with, but more in a realistic product of his time kind of way. (From the interview with his descendants I also understand that he probably had Asperger’s… which doesn’t necessarily make him an unlikeable person but does explain his obsessiveness). Starting as a true sceptic of spiritualism, and in need of money, he starts of a host of experiments to find out if these seances are real and the science behind them. We follow his grow in fame and decline into madness.

Now I need to put in some content warnings for the book. Like I said there is suicide on the page. There is also some sexual inappropriatness (with lack of a better word… It isn’t quite abuse but it is enough to make one feel quite uncomfortable), as well as talk of domestic violence.

The writing in this book is stunning. It is beautiful yet very effortless, and managed to suck me in right from the start. I can struggle with a short attention span (especially when reading on my phone), but had no problem reading this book for hours on end.

The atmosphere was spot on, with the the feeling of unease and minor hauntings slowly seeping in from the start, perfectly leading towards that very dramatic ending. And there is a good sense of its time as well, both in William’s ideas and his experiments, the treatment of women, the rise in interest in spiritualism around the first World War and the sinking of the Titanic.

I absolutely adored this book, which is a fascinating character study that just sucked me in right from the start. One I would highly recommend.