Step into the neon-lit streets and shadowed parlors of 1920s Shanghai, where a fraudulent medium and a sceptical detective must face real spirits, unravel a ghostly conspiracy, and surrender to a love that refuses to stay buried.

Lian has built her career on beautiful lies. As "Zhenzhu"—Pearl—she's the most sought-after medium in the French Concession, conducting séances for wealthy widows with hidden gramophones, clever cold reading, and a sharp tongue she can't quite sheathe. She's never believed in the spirits she pretends to summon. Until the night the shadows in her mirror begin to move, the room turns freezing cold, and something ancient and hungry speaks her true name.

Detective Callum Ashby doesn't believe in ghosts either. A half-Chinese, half-British officer in the Shanghai Municipal Police, he's spent eleven years solving crimes no one else will touch while navigating a colonial system that will never fully accept him. But when two mediums are found dead with blood-red peony petals clutched in their hands—the same calling card left at the infamous Night of the Shattered Bangle three years ago—he's forced to seek help from the one person he'd normally arrest.

Thrown together by murder and bound by a reluctant alliance, Lian and Callum discover a web of dark ritual and ancient vengeance stretching back four centuries. A secret society known as the Order of the Crimson Veil has been waiting for a key—a descendant of a powerful bloodline—to open a gate between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. And they believe Lian is that key.

As the full moon approaches and the veil between worlds grows thin, Lian must confront the legacy of the grandmother she never knew—a true medium who fled the Order decades ago, leaving a trail of fire and grief in her wake. With Callum standing between her and the darkness, she'll have to decide: run as her grandmother did, or stand at the threshold and fight.

A lush, atmospheric historical fantasy romance, The Shanghai Séance weaves together Jazz Age glamour, Chinese folklore, and a slow-burn love story into an unforgettable tale of spirits, sacrifice, and the red thread of fate that can never be broken.