Hello there, new friends. My name is Eve H. Whitby and I’m the leader of The Ghost Precinct here in Manhattan. New York City often feels like the heart of the world, especially as the 19th century draws to a close in 1899.

I invite you into an average day of mine, though mind you, my days are far from average. I do hope you like ghosts, because they’re the foremost ingredient in every part of my day.

I awake in my upstairs room in “Fort Denbury”, my half of a joined set of townhouses just off Washington Square Park, along Waverly Place. My parents, Lord and Lady Denbury, procured these houses before I was born and when I was sixteen, at the zenith of my powers, I commandeered my own side of the Fort so that my family wouldn’t be so disturbed by all the ghosts.

Starting my day with as much coffee as I can safely afford, it is an expensive luxury, it helps terribly with my ghost-induced migraines. After breakfast with my team, we walk through the bustling city streets to our Greenwich Village office. While any number of ghosts may float about my house and our trip to our precinct office, we try not to interact with them until we’re inside, door shut, minds clear, and we begin our days with seances to try to continue ongoing mortal investigations.

You see, I am a medium and from all reports from my beloved Grandmother Evelyn, who is a supremely talented psychic in her own right, I’m the strongest medium that Gran has ever seen. I’ll have to take her word for it, goodness knows the ghosts haven’t made my life easy, swarms of them tormenting me through my youth until I made a peace with them. Many became my friends once I started to see the kind of usefulness they offer, and my purpose in life became as crystal clear as a polished seer’s ball. (To be fair, I don’t use crystal balls or spirit boards or other paraphernalia in my work, my fellow mediums and I use our voices, minds and good old-fashioned pen and paper to write down what we see and hear from the spirit world.)

I began the Ghost Precinct, a secret wing associated with the New York Police Department (thanks to favors that Gran’s friends called in with Governor Theodore Roosevelt); to allow ghosts to be our useful, unconventional assistants in solving weird, unsolved crime. We try to help the most vulnerable and otherwise helpless. In this aim I am assisted by my team; three incredible young women from very different backgrounds and we each have our own talents. Cora, for example, whose Creole family agreed she should come to me once she started having visions of the department, is a gifted psychic and psychometric, she can touch and object and gain insight into its past. Antonia, the heart of our group, fled a family who couldn’t accept her but she has unparalleled intuition about the emotional landscape of a ghost or a living victim. Little Jenny, an Irish orphan whose parents sent her to me after their death, bonds with children’s spirits and also draws pictures of faces and clues that she sees. I have the most consistently open channel with the spirits, I see them, they talk with me, and sometimes they drive me batty.

Then there’s Detective Jacob Horowitz, who has been my foremost champion and acts as a liaison between my group and the rest of the force. It isn’t easy to be a woman in a field that’s only had women working in it for a very short time, and even so, not generally welcome. The good detective understands that all too well, being Jewish and facing similar prejudice. Did I mention he’s attractive? He is. It’s very troubling. He’s making it very hard for me to commit to my lifelong goal of spinsterhood. We’ve agreed to court so that our families will shut up about us entertaining suitors and giving into their arranged marriages. But the false courting is looking more like actual courting and did I mention he’s handsome and I’m really not very good at this whole flirting thing when I actually mean it?

Regardless, my life is full of wonderful people. My best friends are Maggie the ghost, who has been with me since childhood, my Gran who is my advisor and angel, and I’ve just been through a lot as both of them went missing. We’ve been running in circles trying to untangle clues and offer some peace and resolution to restless ghosts and concerned families. It’s quite an adventure. I do hope we’re done being threatened by a high-profile robber baron but I can’t be too sure.

It is my hope that you’ll think of ghosts as a help, not a horror, and that you’ll enjoy our little Precinct as it tries to do good in a madcap, ever-changing city, one spirit at a time.

You can read more about Eve in The Spectral City, the first book in the NEW “Spectral City” gothic, gaslamp fantasy series, released November 2018.

Solving crime isn’t only for the living.

In turn-of-the century New York City, the police have an off-the-books spiritual go-to when it comes to solving puzzling corporeal crimes. . .

Her name is Eve Whitby, gifted medium and spearhead of The Ghost Precinct. When most women are traveling in a gilded society that promises only well-appointed marriage, the confident nineteen-year-old Eve navigates a social circle that carries a different kind of chill. Working with the diligent but skeptical Lieutenant Horowitz, as well as a group of fellow psychics and wayward ghosts, Eve holds her own against detractors and threats to solve New York’s most disturbing crimes as only a medium of her ability can.

But as accustomed as Eve is to ghastly crimes and all matters of the uncanny, even she is unsettled by her department’s latest mystery. Her ghostly conduits are starting to disappear one by one as though snatched away by some evil force determined to upset the balance between two realms, and most important–destroy the Ghost Precinct forever. Now Eve must brave the darkness to find the vanished souls. She has no choice. It’s her job to make sure no one is ever left for dead.

Purchase Link
# # # # # # # # # # #

Meet the author
Leanna Renee Hieber is an actress, playwright and the author of twelve Gothic, Gaslamp Fantasy novels for adults and teens for Tor and Kensington Books. The Strangely Beautiful series hit Barnes & Noble and Borders Bestseller lists and garnered numerous regional genre awards with new revised editions now available from Tor. She is a four-time Prism Award winner for excellence in cross-genre fantasy. Darker Still was a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier award. The Spectral City, Leanna’s new ghost-filled series set in 1899 NYC, has been a bestseller in the genre across platforms. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous notable anthologies and her books have been translated into many languages. A proud member of performer unions Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA, she lives in New York City where she is a licensed ghost tour guide for Boroughs of the Dead and has been featured in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire and Mysteries at the Museum. Leanna channels 19th century designer and visionary Clara Driscoll in her latest one-woman show, By the Light of Tiffany. She is represented by Paul Stevens of the Donald Maass agency. Visit Leanna at

leannareneehieber.com

All comments are welcomed.