When famed psychic Perspicacious Peg predicts a murder will occur at England’s Belief and Beyond conference, her science-minded colleagues recruit twenty-six-year-old budding sleuth Emily Castles to attend the event as a “future crimes investigator.” The suspected victim: celebrated magician Edmund Zenon, who plans to perform a daring stunt at the conference—and is offering fifty thousand pounds to any attendee who can prove that the paranormal exists.
In the seaside town of Torquay, Emily meets a colorful cast of characters: dramatic fortune-teller Madame Nova; kindly Bobby Blue Suit and his three psychic dachshunds; Sarah and Tim Taylor, devastated parents mourning their late son; and religious cult members Hilary, Trina, and the Colonel. Tensions rise as believers in science, the supernatural, and the spiritual clash with one another. But once a body count begins, Emily must excuse herself from the séances and positivity circles, and use old-fashioned detective work to find the killer.
Helen Smith is a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Crime Writers Association and English PEN. She traveled the world when her daughter was small, doing all sorts of strange jobs to support them both–from cleaning motels to working as a magician’s assistant–before returning to live in London where she wrote her first novel. Her work has been reviewed in The Times, the Guardian, The Independent, Time Out and the Times Literary Supplement. Her books have reached number one in the bestseller lists in the Kindle store on both sides of the Atlantic.
I recieved this First Reads Goodreads Giveaway book for an honest review.
This is not your typical murder mystery book. It hearkens more to the old style of mystery books where you have a chorus of characters and the reader is in the middle of the investigation like the hero. Or in this case our heroine, Emily Castles.
I haven’t read the first book in this series, but I think I should have in order to understand Emily better. From what I gathered, she is an office worker, but is put into situations where she needs to use her good old fashioned notebook and deduction skills. She’s paired up with a quirky, but lovable character Dr. Muriel, a philosophy professor.
As the description of the book presents, this book doesn’t start with a murder. It starts with the setting of a murder and the characters. The whole cast are quirky and there are moments where I was laughing and shaking my head. I found it fairly easy to find out the murderer, but I did like the journey.
For a light book that has intrigue and mystery, this is a good choice.
Casia's Corner 