Disturbing Time by Michael Christopher

In the progressive 1960s, Arthur Campion, a young and naive Nottingham man meets eccentric clairvoyant Edgar Booth, who claims they once shared a past life along with Edgar’s stoic wife Kate and cynical hypnotherapist Bob Langham. Hypnotic regressions, hauntings, séances and subsequent research finally reveal four Victorian lives that appear to authenticate the most extraordinary hypothesis. The story takes the reader back to 1891, where villainous hawker George Davy becomes entangled with coal merchant Billy Watts, Billy’s partner and part-time prostitute Ethel Bentley, and her dashing clandestine lover Victor Thurgood. A violent robbery, Davy’s lecherous assault on Ethel, and Davy’s desperate murder by Thurgood and Watts lead to an inconclusive police inquiry. Returning to the 1960s, the two eras mystically come together during a final chaotic séance. Though some ambiguity remains, the contemporary manifestations of the Victorian characters are somewhat awkwardly revealed.