The Clairvoyants

November 28, 2016
In Brown’s gripping second novel (after 2013’s The Longings of Wayward Girls), narrator Martha can see the dead, though she doesn’t feel obligated to help them. But she’s intrigued when she begins to see the ghost of Mary Rae Swindal, a girl reported missing in Martha’s upstate New York college town. Mary Rae’s ghost leads Martha to a house where she meets William Bell, a fellow photographer. Martha and William have a whirlwind courtship that ends in their marrying on the day of Mary Rae’s funeral. Martha’s unstable sister, Del, with whom Martha shares a dark childhood secret, follows Martha to Ithaca after spending three years in a psychiatric institution. Through William, the sisters end up spending time with his mentor, Anne, and a mourning group of girls from Mary Rae’s nearby hometown, Milton. William’s behavior becomes increasingly worrisome as Martha starts to see visions of him in the place where Mary Rae died; Martha and Del begin to wonder if he might be dangerous. Martha’s faith in Del is also challenged, though another traumatic event forces them to rely on each other. Brown’s novel is a riveting page-turner. She deftly reveals bits of Martha’s and Del’s past in tandem with more details about the mystery that Martha is trying to unravel, leaving the reader wondering if Martha might be an unreliable narrator. Though the ending isn’t entirely satisfying, Brown shows an admirable ability to create suspense.