What is the title of your latest release?
THE SEANCE GARDEN
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Professor Harper Grae specializes in the history of witchcraft and the occult - and yet she remains skeptical of all things otherworldly. But after stumbling across a body while on a local nighttime ghost tour, she catches sight of something in the victim’s centuries-old adobe mansion she can’t shake - something that’s impossible to explain, at least not rationally. As Harper dives into the history of the mansion in search of answers, she unearths more than a murderer…she must confront a new way of thinking about what might lie beyond the veil.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I was born and raised in coastal California, so I really wanted to set my story in a small-ish town right on the coast…preferably one with a colorful history. Monterey fits the bill! As one of the oldest towns in California (established in 1770) it has seen more than its share of strife, success, and scandal – from the indigenous peoples to the Spanish explorers, the gold rush boomers to the fishing industry workers, bordello madams to world-class aquarium scientists, multi-million-dollar mansion owners to humble bungalow-dwellers. Monterey also has a rich literary history – Steinbeck set two novels (“Cannery Row” and “Sweet Thursday”) in this small, somewhat sleepy (and now quite touristy) seaside town.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Definitely! Harper is brilliant and snarky and a tad cynical – just about my favorite kind of person! My sister is a professor of history and gave me lots of insight into the nuances of the field, and I spent many years in academia pursuing a PhD in Anthropology. Harper is modeled after a lot of the women I knew in school – ambitious yet self-doubting, and above all, devoted to their research and teaching -- and usually not thanked nearly enough for what they contribute to society.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Stubborn, witty, self-doubting
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
One of my favorite aspects of writing is getting to research new things! I learned a lot about the history of Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Salinas – even though I grew up in the Bay Area and visited those towns several times over the decades (I was a huge Steinbeck fan as a teenager) I still had a lot to learn about the layered background of the region. I also dove into contemporary controversies over the use of the massive former Fort Ord military base, and the allegedly toxic mess left behind when the base was shut down.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I try to write a story straight through in order to get the plot down - though to be completely honest, it is sometimes hard to resist going back over earlier sections and tweaking them. But by and large I find that when I get to the end of any novel I write, I have to go back to the beginning and add or subtract things (sometimes entire chapters!) in order to make the plot work, so there’s really no use in editing before the story is actually complete.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Fancy French paté
Describe your writing space/office!
My home office is a former sun porch – which makes it awkward when people try to find our front door because it opens straight onto my book-lined office (friends/family know to go around to the back). But these days I spend a lot of time in France and Spain, so my writing space consists of little desks or dining tables in random hotels or rentals or friends’ homes, or even just sitting in bed with my computer on my knees. I’m not particularly picky – when I have something I want to write, I write.
Who is an author you admire?
Toni Morrison (see below)
Is there a book that changed your life?
Toni Morrison’s BELOVED. I can’t get over the poetry with which she rights, and the truths she confronts head-on. And with BELOVED, I find that no matter how old I am when I re-read it, I find some new understanding.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I got the first call that I was to be published with my very first mystery, FEINT OF ART, which was published in 2006. I was having work done on my ramshackle old house and was baking a pizza for the workers - and I remember I let it burn because I was too excited to get off the phone with my agent! FEINT OF ART was all about art forgery and theft, and I had received many rejections that declared: “Americans don’t like to read about art”. The editor who bought it at Penguin/Berkley told my agent that she had been looking for a book about art – and art crime - for years! So one never knows what will hit, and when, with the publishing industry…
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I’m all over the map. I love poetry, and essays, and of course mysteries. I read a lot of non-fiction, and enjoy diving in and researching for my current works in progress – though very little of the information I glean ever winds up on the page. I also read a lot of mainstream novels, usually recommended by friends or booksellers I trust.
What’s your favorite movie?
Practical Magic (the original with Sandra Bullock – though I’m curious to see the sequel). And/or Casablanca. (I’m a Libra, I can’t ever decide!)
What is your favorite season?
That’s an easy one: Autumn.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I keep most of my birthdays very low-key – usually my boyfriend makes a lovely dinner that we share with a small group of friends. But on the decades, I try to do something big – I went to Cuba one year, spent a month in the French countryside another, and had a HUGE birthday bash with a 1920s flapper theme for my latest new decade.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
The Beast Within (on Netflix). I especially loved how they played with character, keeping the viewer off-base and not knowing who to trust. And the podcast The Telepathy Tapes is truly astonishing – I need to listen again because there was so very much to take in.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I’m a salty/spicy gal, and in the Bay Area we have a lot of great ethnic food. I love Thai, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Ethiopian…and of course, I’m lucky enough to spend a lot of time in Spain and France, and I adore their charcuterie and cheese…. I guess when it comes down to it, I just love food!
What do you do when you have free time?
I take long walks (in my neighborhood, through the redwoods, or by the sea), garden, paint, and spend time with friends. I love to hang out with dogs whenever possible. Also, my neighbor’s black cat, Fernando, has adopted me and is determined to make me a cat-lover. It’s working.
What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working now on a trilogy set in the gold rush area of Copperopolis/Angel’s Camp. It features a Winchester Mystery House type of sprawling mansion with a mysterious past, labyrinthine copper mines, a secret sisterhood, a deadly rose maze, a terrible fire, and magical folks in recovery. It’s spooky and weird and a whole lot of fun – at least for me, and I’m hoping for readers as well.
After a cheesy ghost tour in one of California’s oldest towns stumbles upon an actual haunting, a skeptical historian of the occult becomes entangled in solving a murder case.
When Professor Harper Grae loses a bet with a friend, she finds herself on a local nighttime tour of “haunted” locations in Monterey. Harper’s a lifelong non-believer in the occult, though her academic career is devoted to the historical and societal significance of witchcraft, ghosts, and medicinal poisons of all sorts. But her skepticism immediately gets tested when the tour stumbles on the body of local artist Delilah Mason—who’s found murdered on the grounds of a nearly two-hundred-year-old mansion, once home to the infamous Perles family.
On the night Mason’s body is found, Harper catches sight of something in the house that she can’t shake, something that’s impossible to explain, at least not rationally. Soon the murder investigation reveals that this is the second time a woman has been found murdered beneath a sprawling cypress tree in the gardens of the Perles Mansion. And when Harper’s closest friend is questioned by the police, Harper fears the authorities will fail to uncover the real killer.
As Harper asks questions around town and digs deeper into the supernatural speculation and rumors surrounding the murders—two women killed in similar circumstances, separated by nearly two centuries —she sees evidence she can’t ignore that the notorious mansion truly is haunted by the ghost of Isabel Perles.
What will it cost Harper to rethink everything she’s always believed to admit that the veil between the living and the dead might actually be crossed?
Horror | Thriller Paranormal - Supernatural [ Berkley, On Sale: July 28, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780593638262 / eISBN: 9780593638279 ]
Juliet Blackwell is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels based in France, including TheParis Showroom, TheVineyards of Champagne, and The Paris Key. She also writes the Witchcraft Mystery series and the Haunted Home Renovation series. As Hailey Lind, Blackwell wrote the Agatha-nominated Art Lover’s Mystery series. A former anthropologist, social worker, and professional artist, Juliet is a California native who has spent time in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France.
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