Giving Up the Ghost — Max McCoy

From sea to shining sea, the invention known as the telegraph would tame the American frontier. But for psychic detective Ophelia Wylde, the wild west is about to get wilder. . .

Messages From Beyond?

When telegraph keys across the country begin bursting into flames--and chattering ghostly nonsense--the terror and turmoil is enough to bring the railways, banks, and news industry to a standstill. There's only one person they can turn to: Mrs. Ophelia Wylde, a young widow turned detective who has famously brought murderers to justice--by speaking to their victims on the other side. Are the recent telegraph mishaps a message from beyond? Ophelia's not sure, but the fact that the key's last operator, Lightning "Hapless" Hopkins, has been poisoned is enough to raise her darkest suspicions. It's up to Ophelia to unravel the riddle of the ghostly wire tap, solve the murder of Hapless Hopkins, and expose the secret history of the telegraph's little-known co-inventor. . .before her own life is on the line.