“The Seance” by John Harwood (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, $25)

This crackerjack Victorian thriller has all the elements of a classic ghost story — young women imprisoned by propriety and expectation, an unexpected inheritance, a derelict mansion, and awesome displays of thunder and lightning that portend soul-shattering plot twists.

“The Seance” is told through the written testaments of several characters. Constance Langton, daughter of a depressed mother and an unfeeling father, pens hers in 1889 when the death of one parent cuts her loose from any secure means of support.

Then news we all hope to get, and never do, shows up — Constance has inherited a pricey piece of real estate: Wraxford Hall.

She learns Wraxford Hall’s story from a disturbing packet of writings. Included is the testament of Eleanor Unwin, a young woman of an earlier generation.

Eleanor’s story would impel any sane person to call a real estate agent, but Constance feels an uncanny empathy with Eleanor, who disappeared two decades earlier under scandalous circumstances.

And Harwood understands that the true horror of “The Seance” lies in the prison Victorian society created for young women without money or prospects.

Modern readers will hold their breath until the last minute, hoping that Harwood’s estimable heroines escape the clutches of a dreadful fate.