The Quiet Dead

Paul Furneret returns to Paris after a four-year interval. He again contacts Camille Flammarion, Jane de La Vaudere and Madame Zosima;, who now runs a women's refuge and employs hypnosis to enable women to "remember" their alleged past incarnations.

One night, he is intercepted by Baron de Rochemure, who had recognized his daughter in the sketch Paul produced during his first attempt at automatic drawing, and is very enthusiastic for Paul to try again. To that end, Rochemore convenes a seance to which he invites Flammarion, Zosima and Jane, as well as Henri Lemastur, the hypnotist involved in the first seance, his patroness, and Gabriel de Lautrec. The baron, who is dying of cancer, reveals for the first time the harrowing story of how his daughter died and why he has been so anxious to make contact with her.

Paul again produces four drawings while hypnotized by Zosima, but they are not what he expected; he does, however contrive a telepathic link between several of the people present, which enables Jane, the baron and his housekeeper to share a common vision, which satisfies the baron, but convinces Jane that Paul almost died in the process, only to be saved by a mysterious "angel". As a result, she forbids Paul to have any further contact with Zosima...

Brian M. Stableford has been a professional writer since 1965. He has published more than 60 science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as several authoritative non-fiction books. He is also translating the works of Paul Feval and other French writers of the fantastique for Black Coat Press which also published his most two recent fantasy novels: The New Faust at the Tragicomique and The Stones of Camelot.