Paranormal Mysteries

In today’s episode, Brook and Sarah discuss mysteries that include paranormal elements: ghosts, spirits, and other unexplainable phenomena.

Discussed and mentioned

The Last Seance (1926) Agatha Christie

Kincaid Strange series by Kristi Charish

Mitzi Moon series by Trixie Silvertale

Pebble Cove series by Eryn Scott

Halloween Party (1969) Agatha Christie

Lockwood & Co series by Jonathan Stroud

London Séance Society (2023) Sarah Penner

For more information

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Transcript

This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.

Sarah	Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah.
Brook	And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery.
Sarah	Hi, Brook.
Brook	Hi, Sarah.
Brook	Today’s topic is doubly mysterious.
Sarah	Ooh.
Brook	Today we’re going to be talking about paranormal mysteries. Ghosts and psychic powers. At first glance, these things may not seem like a natural fit for a genre usually grounded in logic, evidence, and rational investigation. And yet, paranormal mysteries have become one of the most popular and enduring corners of the mystery space.
Brook	Part of the appeal is that paranormal mysteries offer readers two puzzles at once. There’s the crime itself to solve, but also the lingering question, what exactly is happening here? Is there truly something supernatural at work? Or is there a logical explanation hiding behind the surface?
Brook	In many ways, mystery fiction and gothic fiction grew up side-by-side. Writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, Daphne du Maurier, and Arthur Conan Doyle frequently blended crime, suspense, and eerie supernatural atmospheres.
Brook	And of course, classic mystery readers will recognize the tradition of seances, curses, haunted houses, and mysterious apparitions appearing throughout Golden Age fiction, even if the explanation ultimately turned out to be perfectly ordinary, sort of like a Scooby-Doo episode where the ghost is eventually unmasked.
Brook	But in many modern paranormal mysteries, the supernatural elements are very real in the story world. Ghosts may assist the sleuth, witches may solve crimes, and clairvoyant investigators may rely on abilities beyond ordinary deduction.
Brook	While these stories are especially popular on the cozy side of the genre, paranormal elements also appear frequently in thrillers. So today we’re exploring paranormal mysteries, where they came from, why readers are drawn to them, and how writers can strike a balance between the supernatural and our mystery reader’s expectation.
Sarah	Oh, thank you for such a great introduction, Brook.
Brook	Yeah, so I think this is going to be a lot of fun to discuss. And so let’s start ah at the beginning, the beginnings of this idea of paranormal in mysteries. And I really do think that we can see that clear back to the grandfather of mystery, which is Edgar Allan Poe.
Sarah	Yeah, I remember from our conversation about him. He was in that period of time where I think spiritualism was was something that that people participated in.
Brook	Definitely right. I mean, these people dealt with a lot of death in their life. And so the idea that you could still speak with your loved ones or your loved ones were watching over you, I think that was a belief that most people held. And so there was some playing with that in his stories. And then onward into the Golden Age where a lot of people were taking part in seances ah that was kind of in vogue to go and create these atmospheres and try to talk to your dearly departed. These kind of things were almost like a trendy ah topic. And so it was really natural that the Golden Age authors would then incorporate this type of thing into their story. And I i found it interesting that um Agatha Christie, usually in her novels, would have a solution to the mystery that dispelled any thoughts that there were actually ghosts. There were logical and rational conclusions. But in her short stories, she would often delve into something a little more creepy or ambiguous. So, it depends on where you want to take your mystery reading. But I was thinking of, for for instance, the Last Seance collection. And those give you just a little bit more of a question mark of, you know, what was going on in that story.
Sarah	Mm hmm. And maybe it would be helpful to just um say that we’re when we’re talking about paranormal, we’re really talking about mysteries that involve the spirit world, right?
Brook	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sarah	Ghosts, rather than the supernatural, which would be vampires and werewolves. And, and you know, I think there’s um some crossover, today we’re really focusing the paranormal and and ghost type mysteries.
Brook	So Sarah, as you know, I just returned from a short trip to an old turn-of-the-century mining town, which heavily influences my own mystery series, which is not paranormal by the way, but I love this town and I love all the historic sites and I haven’t been there for about 15 years.
Brook	And I was struck by how much more talk there was of ghosts and hauntings this time um There was a little of that before, but this time nearly all the tours and all the old buildings you could visit were playing up the idea of paranormal.
Sarah	I love it. And did you see any ghosts?
Brook	I did not. the The hotel we stayed in was an 1876 building. And there are lots of stories about what is you know alleged to happen to people who spend the night there. And we did not experience any of it. But I did think about this and and the change of from really being history-based about 15 years ago what skewing more towards this haunting and ghosts. And I was thinking about how easy it is to so explain everything these days. You know, we can Google anything. We have every bit of knowledge we could want at the tip of our fingers. And I wondered if maybe we’re a little bit hungry for something that’s still unknown and mysterious. And one of the only places that that’s really left is, ah you know, the idea of paranormal or the what happens after this life.
Sarah	Yeah, you know, I i think people love that idea of this. place, you know, potentially being a connection to the past, right? And and um Vancouver is not a particularly old city, but we do have an older hotel that I think there’s, you know, meant to be a a woman in a red dress who haunts the hallways, for example. And I just love the idea of staying there and and possibly encountering her.
Brook	Right. So um some of the things we already love about mystery, and you you talk about this a lot, Sarah, where we kind of get to flirt with danger without actually being in danger when we’re reading mystery. And then when you add in this extra layer, it sort of levels up a little bit of fear, a little uncertainty, a little tension. And I think that that’s something that readers really enjoy.
Sarah	Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Sarah	So Brook, you mentioned in your introduction that you don’t read a lot of paranormal mysteries. And I don’t mind a book that has a a paranormal element. But I think sometimes, there’s a risk that rather than it kind of evoking that spookiness, it leans into, the the book can lean into being a little too cute. And so, I don’t get that same um ah flirting with danger.
Brook	I know what you mean. And that especially happens in more of the, on the cozy end of the spectrum, of course. And I think something else is that these stories need to stay true to the fair play rule. um Because we want the logical solution. I think that’s still important in a mystery. So, if psychic visions or like a ghost providing information helps solve the mystery, sometimes that takes some of the satisfaction out for me.
Sarah	Yeah. I think that’s totally fair. The, the importance of maintaining that fair play. Ah I know I’ve read books where maybe the sleuth isn’t a ghost, but they have a ghost companion. And that affords the sleuth some opportunity to get into places or see things that they wouldn’t normally do, right? They can send the ghost companion to be in a room. um Often there’s some sort of… limit for that companion in terms of where they can go or how they can, you know, how long they can be in a certain place, something like that, that adds to that tension in the book.
Sarah	ah But there’s ah an author, she’s based here in Vancouver, and her name is Kristi Charish And she has a series that maybe just outside our our definition. Her sleuth is Kincaid Strange. So, the series is set in Seattle, in a version of Seattle where there is this paranormal element and her sleuth practices voodoo.
Brook	That sounds really interesting. And I would agree with what you said about the sleuth’s companion, who is ah maybe a ghost or a spirit. When it’s done right, they can still provide information, but it doesn’t necessarily spoil the mystery, so to speak, because we still want our sleuth to be independent and have agency.
Brook	So I think overall what I’ve realized is I really enjoy the paranormal atmosphere more than mysteries that hinge on the paranormal, if that makes any sense at all. Because once that paranormal element becomes the answer, that’s when the mystery loses tension for me.
Brook	One series that I think does this very well is our friend Trixie Silvertale. Her series, the Mitzi Moon series, does have a ghost who the main character sleuth, it’s her grandmother who she ends up meeting as ah as a ghost and is her sidekick. There’s a lot of humor and her grandmother does aid her in the investigation, but not in a way that is too much.
Sarah	Oh, that sounds great. ah And I like the idea of um the sleuth, you know, knowing the ghost, right? So they’re they’re continuing the relationship that they would have had while the while the ghost character was alive.
Brook	Another series that I enjoyed is the Pebble Cove Mysteries. This is by Eryn Scott. And in this situation, it’s a lovable ghost. There’s just a little hint of romance between the sleuth and the ghost. ah But there again, it it is really well done. And I would recommend that one as well.
Sarah	So Brook, you mentioned how um in the Golden Age, you know, seances would often be part of the plot. And I’m thinking about Agatha Christie’s book, Halloween Party, that a couple of years ago was released as a film with Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, titled ah Haunting in Venice. And I think you and I talked about this at the time that it came out and how like they really leaned into that paranormal theme.
Brook	Yes, this is reminding me of my trip this week where maybe we’re craving a little bit of that unknown. And obviously it’s really popular in our culture to be thinking about ghosts because that is exactly where Branagh took that ah storyline. ah And I remember sitting in the theater watching it and racking my brain trying to remember if there were any ghosts in the original Christie. And of and of course there’s not. There is a seance scene. But this is a children’s Halloween party. um
Brook	And any of these activities, there’s bobbing for apples and there’s… all so There’s costumes and then there’s you know a seance, which is for fun. But in the movie, it is a actual seance and actually summons a spirit.
Sarah	I don’t think people really responded well to that departure.
Brook	No, and it again reflects the idea that maybe there was too much of the solution wrapped up in the paranormal. um And especially, you know, tried and true Christie fans would know that that wasn’t the case.
Sarah	Mm-hmm.
Sarah	Yeah, I mean, it was just a departure all around.
Brook	True.
Sarah	Because the the book doesn’t take place in Venice.
Brook	No, not at all.
Sarah	So there’s a ah young adult series called Lockwood and Co by ah Jonathan Stroud. um And in this, the premise is that there are ghosts that are wreaking havoc in in in London. It’s only young people who can deal with them.
Sarah	And so the story follows these young ghost hunters that end up solving a mystery as part of their ghost hunting. And I actually really, really enjoyed it. I think it has been made into a um show on Netflix, but I haven’t i haven’t actually seen it. But the I really enjoyed the books.
Brook	I love that the um ability to see and interact with the ghosts is restricted to children or or young people. I think that’s really cool because it’s a little bit how real life is. like The older we get, the more we you know believe in certain things. And so maybe there’s some truth to it.
Sarah	Well, absolutely. There is this notion that as adults, we lose some of that whether it’s innocence or whatever it is that allows children to believe in things that, you know, we dismiss after a certain age or certain experiences. I’m not sure which. And yeah, it’s it it’s it’s quite a delightful series, um but, you know, deals with some um interesting themes as well.
Sarah	Brook, do you believe in in ghosts or in the supernatural?
Brook	You know, I think a part of me does. I don’t know if I believe in the visualness of them. Like I said, I didn’t see one of the many things I was supposed to see at the historic hotel. But I do think that there are, you know, connections. And I have too many stories of people who will hear a song on the radio at just the right time. You know, maybe their loved one’s favorite song, Who’s Passed, or, ah you know, just little things happen that makes me think that we’re still connected to the people we’ve lost somehow.
Brook	What about you, Sarah?
Sarah	Yeah, I mean, i think i I think I do. Maybe equal measures of belief and skepticism. ah But I can’t remember whether it was on Reddit or something like Gawker Media maybe, but there used to be a regular um post of supernatural things and, you know, it would come up around Halloween as part of spooky month. And i can remember there was one story that someone had shared. It was kind of a call out for, you know, share your, um, uh, I said supernatural, didn’t I, um, share your paranormal stories. And,
Sarah	ah There was one that I still think about where this woman was a teacher in a school and she had, she shared video of the, it was either the blind or the window opening without anybody in the room.
Sarah	And it just just gave me chills. And I loved it because it was actually one of the old schools here in Vancouver where that had happened. And, oh, yeah, I wish I i wish i could find it so that I could link to it in the in the show notes. But um so, yeah, you know, seeing that, I thought, yeah, I do believe that…
Brook	Right, right. It’s those experiences that make it pretty hard to deny that there’s not something beyond.
Sarah	So another book ah that I’ve read that has a paranormal paranormal element is it’s this historical mystery called The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner. And it is about women who perform seances ah and you know there’s a mystery that they need to to um they need to solve. you know They conjure the spirits of of murder victims, according to the book description. I recommend it it. It is, it was a great read.
Brook	That does sound good. You know how much I love a good historical mystery, Sarah. And I don’t want to end today without mentioning another very popular paranormal series. And this is Naomi Kuttner’s The Retired Assassin’s Guide series. And it’s worth mentioning not only because it’s great, but also because we are going to have the pleasure of speaking with Naomi about writing in this space coming soon.
Sarah	Yes, I’m very much looking forward to that conversation.
Brook	As am I.
Sarah	Okay. Well, Brook, thank you so much for this conversation. think it’s always interesting to speak about genre that we don’t really read very much in. You’ve suggested a couple of titles and I’ve suggested a couple of titles for people perhaps who are new to this subgenre.
Brook	Yes. And, you know, I have some new reading ideas, which I always love. ah And before we leave, I have a question of the week, listeners. Do you enjoy mysteries with ghosts or psychic sleuths? Or do you prefer a more traditional detective story?
Brook	We would love to hear your thoughts. Send us an email or come find us on Instagram and Facebook. But until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery.
Brook	I’m Brook.
Sarah	And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery.