The Witch of Napoli

What a wonderful story.  It draws you in from the first page and does not release you from its spell till the very end.  Author, Michael Schmicker has taken an historical person and using some real events culled from newspaper articles and real locales that were mentioned in those articles, he has created a work of fiction that is inthralling.  The characters come alive and you can not help but feel the passion, pain and triumph along with Alessandra, the witch of Napoli and Tomaso Labella the narrator of this story, a newspaper photographer.

The story takes place in Naples in the year 1899.  Alessandra is medium who works performing weekly seances in the apartment of Dr. Ercole Rossi.  Rossi is a professor of philosophy at the University of Naples and the leader of the Spiritualist Society of Naples.  Alessandra can talk to the dead.  She passes on messages from the loved ones spirits who have died and gone to the Other Side.

Alessandra was a physical Spiritualist, levitating tables, making things fly across the room, and having the taking on the persona of a spirit who would act through her.  She was in an unhappy, abusive relationship with her manager, husband that she wanted to escape.  Labelle is a a young, 16 year old, who falls in love with Alessandra and wants to help her escape her unhappy marriage.
He is also trying to establish himself as a news journalist and move up to news editor, so he travels with Alessandra, following the story of her success.  Tomaso works for the newspaper, Mattino.

Rossi and his colleagues were interested in studying Alessandra as a science experiment.  There were many frauds who were performing as mediums with assistants who helped them create a show. These charlatans would take advantage of people, distraught from the death of a loved one, paying for contact to the Other Side.  The members of the Spiritualist Society were in disagreement over the reality of the mediums. "Camillo Lombardi changed everything....The week after the seance at Rossi's home announced he would giving a big, public lecture in Rome on the topic of 'Science, Evolution, and Spiritualism'. " The newspaper Mattino, offers to fund travel expenses for Lombardi to come to Naples and attend a seance led by Alessandra.

"Lombardi's position on Spiritualism was well-known.  He had attended three seances in Florence at the invitation of Dr. Lauro Nobile, head of the Italian Spiritualist Society, and concluded the medium, was suffering from what he called female hysteria.  As for the mysterious rappings and furniture levitations, they were most likely produced by trickery."

A wager is struck, Alessandra agrees to travel across Europe leading seances under strict guidelines, while the members of the Society study her every move.  They are looking for her tricks and the pressure increases as the story develops.

This book is terrific as a novel on its own.  Schmicker has created a fascinating novel that could stand on its own. Interestingly, the story is based on the live of Eusapia Palladino, a controversial medium who lived from 1854 - 1918.  Also, that Schmicker was able to use many memorable quotes, descriptions and observations from real news stories, historical books and scientific records in the book makes the book even more incredible.