When Harlan Grant, famed spiritualist medium (and blackmailer) is found dead in a locked room, actress Norah Fallon and her scientist boyfriend, Richard Stoddard, are implicated. Norah turns to author and playwright (and occasional amateur detective) Jimmy Lane to help clear their names. Why was the occultist so spooked in his last days? What was the 'Fear of Fear'? Jimmy and his Watson, attorney Philip Carter, investigate the uneasy household of Russian Hill, set in three adjacent Victorian row homes, where ancient mysteries meet dangerous scientific discoveries.

Fear of Fear was first published in 1931.