Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch

Mystical Paths by Susan Howatch (1992) is the fifth book in her wonderful series of Starbridge novels.  There are six books in this series set in the fictional town of Starbridge, England and dealing with the changes that took place in the Church of England from the 1930's to the 1960's.  Each novel, with one exception, is narrated by a different Anglican cleric who has risen high in the Church of England but is now encountering a troubling period in his life. 

In Mystical Paths for example the narrator is Nicholas Darrow who is training for the priesthood.  Nicholas is the son of Father Jonathan Darrow who is featured prominently in books one and two of the series.  Nicholas like his father has psychic abilities which his father has warned him to be careful with.  But Nicholas decides to perform a seance as a way to help his friend Katie Aysgarth get over the drowning death of her husband Christian.

Katie feels guilt about Christian's death due to the fact that she feels he committed suicide.  But the seance only makes matters worse for Katie and so Nicholas as a way to repair the mess with the seance decides to investigate what really happened to Christian.  Was it an accident or suicide?  Nicholas hopes he can prove it was an accident and bring Katie some closure.   

Getting to the truth will be difficult and Nicholas Darrow becomes an amateur detective as he talks with Christian's friends and family to find out what really happened and why.  Nicholas also talks with Christian's father, Dr. Neville Aysgarth, the retired Dean at Starbridge.  We learn a great deal about Neville Aysgarth's younger years in book three of the Starbridge series and he's a man with issues.  But in Mystical Paths Dr. Aysgarth is now much older and he shares with Nicholas the concerns he had about his son Christian:   

“This is the truth, Nicholas; this is the truth your father and I worked out together: Christian was sick. It was a spiritual sickness. It arose because he’d turned away from God after his mother died and he’d never filled the vacuum satisfactorily. Of course there are many admirable people in this world who don’t believe in God and yet lead moral, meaningful lives, but they’ve succeeded in filling the spiritual vacuum with sound humanist principles. For a long time I assumed Christian had done that, but in the end I began to wonder and then I started to worry" 

I have only one book left to read in the Starbridge series and I will be sorry to see it come to a close.  These novels can be read out of sequence but it's best to read them in order because the characters carry over from one book to the next.  So if you are curious I would start with book one, Glittering Images.  You may find the series is not for you but if you get hooked you have a very enjoyable reading experience ahead.