Playing the Ghost - Johanna Craven

Australia, 1857.

Life is brutal on the goldfields of Castlemaine. With death around every corner, people are all too willing to believe in ghosts, and embrace the spiritualism movement finding its way across the seas.

For Lucy Earnshaw and her husband Tom, their arrival on the goldfields is marred by unimaginable grief. In the wake of her loss, and a failing marriage, Lucy is drawn into a world of spiritualism and theatre - and into the path of dashing young playwright Will Browning.

Lucy's new obsession leads her into the dark underbelly of the goldfields, a place where murder and thieving is rife, and no one can be trusted. And as she seeks happiness on the fringe of society, she finds herself entangled in a web of lies and corruption - one she may never escape from.