The Spirit Engineer

  • Historical; Gothic

  • October 2021

    • World Rights: Duckworth Books

    • Italy: ​Neri Pozza

Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism, attending séances in the hope they might reach their departed loved ones.


William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him – seemingly from beyond the veil – placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen's parlour tricks gone too far?


Based on the true story of Professor William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunted, twisted tale of power, paranoia, and one ultimate, inescapable truth...

  • WINNER OF THE HWA DEBUT CROWN AWARD 2022

  • WINNER OF BERT’S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021

Selected Praise

A fiendishly clever tale of ambition, deception, and power
— Derren Brown
Haunting, witty and deeply moving
— Jodie Whittaker
Such a deliciously creepy, unsettling read… a melancholic gothic triumph. Gave me all the same feelings as one of my most favourite books ever, Frankenstein
— Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

Other books by A. J. West