Hysteria — Michaela Wright

Her sanctuary turns into a nightmare after sunset. On the run from her abusive mother, inexperienced Liv was very lucky to find honest employment as a scullery maid in the household of Dr. Findlay Lennox. Unfortunately, her luck runs out at nightfall, when the ghosts that only Liv can see steal away any hope of sleep, leaving her clumsy with exhaustion. Her employer offers her the most personal of services. Dr. Lennox is well versed in a very special treatment for female complaints. His experiments on prostitutes have given him intimate knowledge of the female anatomy, allowing him to manipulate it as an effective treatment for hysteria, melancholy, and as he assures Liv, sleeplessness. Liv reluctantly agrees to be his patient, but cannot pretend that the touch of his hand hasn't sparked something more than medicinal. It isn't long before she is seeking his expert attention more often â€" but how long can either of them pretend it isn't more? A growing threat far greater than forbidden love As Dr. Lennox's patients begin to go missing, his colleague, Dr. Knox, draws crowds in the hundreds to his dissection classes. Soon the ghostly crowd in the Lennox household expands to include the prostitutes that had served as Dr. Lennox's volunteer subjects. Liv begins to suspect that these missing women have met an ill fate, but can she convince Dr. Lennox in time to stop the darkness spreading through Edinburgh's streets, or will she be the next one to find herself on Dr. Knox's slab?