Description
In the fall of 2015, PhD candidate Jason Green made his way to the decrepit Hotel Celeste hoping to conduct an interview of disgraced historian Richard Dawdson, an academic with once unlimited prospects who had disappeared from the tenure track with enough drama to have become an urban legend himself within the department.
The conversation that followed would not be cited in any dissertation, but here, for your consideration, is the tale Dr. Dawdson told that evening.
This is her story.
My Thoughts
Anyone who has lived in Rochester NY certainly knows the local legend of The Lady In White who haunts Duran Eastman Park. Legends and stories about ghostly “White Ladies” abound in local folklore all over the world. Rochester’s White Lady is a grieving and vengeful mother looking for the men who murdered her daughter. Accompanied by ghostly hounds (another common trope in world folklore), she roams Durand Eastman Park on the south shore of Lake Ontario, looking for revenge.
Zachary Finn has taken that old legend and fleshed it out with a well-researched and imaginative story that draws on quite a bit of Genesee Valley and Rochester history. He imagines what happened to Mary Browncroft, the aforementioned daughter, leading up to the event that essentially resurrected the spirit of her mother.
Finn immerses the reader in mid-19th century Rochester when the Spiritualism Movement was at its height and the Fox Sisters were demonstrating their psychic abilities on stages all over the region. Our protagonist, Mary, eagerly attends these sessions, hoping to make a connection with her departed mother. At one of the events, Mary’s own psychic abilities come forth when a murdered boy talks to her from beyond the grave and identifies his killers. Mary passes this information on to the law, which results in a series of events that end very tragically.
Finn starts and ends the story in the present time, with the present day protagonist seeking out a disgraced scholar who holds the key to this story. Both time periods are knitted together to form a cracking good ghost story. Rochester natives will recognize lots of landmarks and names, and will certainly know the White Lady legend.
Highly recommended for fans of local lore and legends.
It's All About the Book 