When a fraudulent Spiritualist hosts a séance in a genuinely haunted house, she proves to be the key to unlocking the manor’s dark secrets. This is the premise of the fiction podcast Beatrix Greene. A short, nine-episode series produced by Realm and released last spring, Beatrix Greene is written by Rachel Hawkins, Vicky Alvear Shecter, and Ash Parsons, and features the skillful voicework of Shiromi Arserio and Alister Austin. If you love haunted houses, Victorian Spiritualism, and atmospheric horror, I highly recommend that you check it out!
Though she doesn’t truly believe in the possibility of communicating with the dead, Beatrix has found that working as a medium is the best way for a young woman with no family to earn her economic independence in Victorian London. She does her best to provide genuine comfort to grieving clients, while avoiding attention from the scientists who publicly expose frauds in the Spiritualist scene. John Walker is one such scientist, giving public demonstrations of the techniques that many of the flashier mediums use in their séances. However, he approaches Beatrix not with threats of exposure but with a proposition: he wants to assemble a team to host a séance at Ashbury Manor. The manor was the site of a great tragedy many years ago, and now a lurid tourist trade has sprung up, capitalizing on the local legends of a mother who killed her young child and then slit her own throat. Beatrix and John are joined by a spirit photographer and several other companions as they seek to determine whether the house is truly haunted by its tragic past. But when Beatrix goes through the motions of reaching out to the Other Side, she unexpectedly awakens more than any of them could have bargained for.
Beatrix Greene makes excellent use of the audio format to fully immerse the listener in an atmosphere of horror. The first few episodes are full of the sounds you would expect to find in an old haunted house: creaking floorboards and echoing footsteps that seem to be coming from just behind you. As the story gets darker and the horror goes from gentle implications of the supernatural to full-on gore, the sound effects become quite visceral—sounds that will haunt your dreams if you listen too late at night. The story is also well-served by the two narrators that represent the different points of view of Beatrix Greene and John Walker, with charming musical interludes that smoothly signal each switch in perspective.
Apart from being an excellent specimen of audio fiction, Beatrix Greene is also a love letter to the era of Victorian Spiritualism, with many fun references to historical figures for the well-informed listener to catch. The author Arthur Conan Doyle makes a brief appearance, which feels realistic given his fervent belief in the supernatural and habit of attending séances. More subtle is an even shorter cameo by Harry Houdini, who is never even mentioned by his full name in the series. However, if you’re familiar with the fact that Houdini frequently used his skills as a magician to expose fake mediums, it will come as no surprise to you that he would be rubbing shoulders with John Walker. And while Beatrix Greene acknowledges the many frauds that hosted séances for fame and profit, the world-building of the story and the way that it depicts spirits fits quite well into the philosophies of Spiritualism. In fact, the ghosts and mediums of Beatrix Greene reminded me strongly of the novels by Leanna Renee Hieber, which explore similar themes.
If you haven’t listened to much audio fiction before, Beatrix Greene’s limited number of episodes and immersive, high-quality sound effects make it an excellent example to start with—as long as you can handle some ghosts and a dash of gore. You can find Beatrix Greene on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. In the comments below, let me know your thoughts on Beatrix Greene or share your recommendations for other fiction podcasts that I should check out!