SOLVED. Adult fiction novel about Victorian death photographer who must take photo of deceased brother by special monument he created and finds his plans thwarted by woman at house. [s]

[Tobiume]

I read this book in early to mid 2019 (before October of 2019). I can't remember if it was just published, but I think it was fairly new.

I recall it being a slimmer volume, maybe no more than 200 pages? But I'm not positive. I loved this book so much and I don't know why the details are so vague. I remember so many of them but they're just at the tip of my mind.

The premise was a Victorian photographer needs to go take a photo of his deceased relative (I thought it was a brother but now I'm not sure), possibly in order to claim an inheritance. But when he gets to the place where he's to take the photo, the woman living at the house won't let him open a locked (glass house?) house. It's very famous and people do tours of it.

She challenges him to tell a story to gain entry and they have a tense romantic-ish relationship. There is some question that this woman is who she says she is. She maybe took on the identity of someone else in the past? Perhaps the woman that the dead man was married to. That sounds kind of right.

The other big detail I remember is that this man has a wife who is a ghost. She died a while back but still comes to him in his dreams. I THINK he was disinherited because of marrying her, or at least in disgrace, but I'm not certain.

[arratavy]

The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr looks like a match.

[Tobiume]

YES. That's it! Thank you so much!