The Clairvoyants by Karen Brown

The Clairvoyants by Karen Brown was this past weekend’s read.  Brown teaches creative writing and literature at the University of South Florida, and this is her second novel.

The Clairvoyants is the story of Martha, a young woman who can see the dead, and her sister Del who has been in a psychiatric facility for the past three years. The novel alternates between their childhood and present day, revealing a little at a time Martha’s clairvoyant skills, the cons she and Del orchestrated, and the mystery surrounding the death of David Pinney, a boy they both liked when they were teens. His murder is one the police won’t quite give up on, coming to Martha’s home to question her regularly.  Her mother decides Martha needs to relocate to take the heat off, and sends her away to school at a college in Ithaca, New York.

Martha sees the ghost of Mary Rae as soon as she arrives in town.  As at home, she is curious but not beholden, intrigued but not responsible for any message the dead may want to impart on the living.  Martha follows Mary Rae’s ghost, who leads her to William, a professor at the college, a photographer, and a future paramour.

Meanwhile, Martha’s sister Del has liberated herself from her psychiatric hospital, and joins Martha in Ithaca.  Del lives in a small apartment downstairs in the same building, and befriends the mystic community as well as the local “Milton” girls.

I zipped right through The Clairvoyants, and when I couldn’t be reading, the characters were very present in my mind (perhaps a little like the dead people Martha sees.)  I was desperate to finish, getting up early and reading through my lunch to get to the satisfying conclusion.  This hypnotic book is again not my typical read, and yet was very enjoyable and certainly has this barista’s endorsement!