Working as a carny, young Stan Carlisle learns everything he can from the sideshow's charlatans, and sets out on his own. Reinventing himself as Reverend Carlisle, Stan portrays himself as a medium, helping his rich but naïve patrons to speak with the dead. As he drags his wife into the act, Stan risks losing control of the venture, and even losing his mind. William Lindsay Gresham (1909-62) only wrote a handful of books, but this dark and scathing 1946 novel is a masterpiece, later inspiring Guillermo Del Toro's Academy Award-nominated 2021 film.