All Things Undying

August 15, 2010

A medium delivers messages from the past.

While shopping the High Street in Dartmouth, Hannah Ives, an American vacationing in Devon, is stopped by Susan Parker, who says Hannah's mother wishes Susan to communicate with Hannah, which is a little surprising since Hannah's mom is long dead. Is Susan a charlatan? Hannah's husband thinks so, but the owner of Horn Hill, the B&B the Iveses are staying at, tells them that she's a well-known TV medium. She proposes to invite Susan to supper, along with the Iveses' friend Alison, her mate and her dad. Later, Susan confronts Alison's elderly father, Stephen Bailey, with words about a ruby ring and a flower, causing the old man to blanch and the TV session to fizzle. When Susan is run over the next day, Hannah begins making inquiries about her accident—or was it murder? Complicating matters is the brash young American who's come to find the burial ground of her dad, killed during a World War II training exercise that may have occurred on Bailey's farm, which was requisitioned by the U.S. Army. More secrets come to light, but none more startling than those involving a wartime romance culminating in a disappearance.

Hannah (Without a Grave, 2009, etc.) is so endearing that even readers who scoff at second sight will be touched by the poignant rendering of "Abba Dabba Honeymoon" relayed to her.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2010
Americans Hannah and Paul Ives are vacationing in Dartmouth, England, when Hannah is approached by clairvoyant Susan Parker, who gives her information purportedly from her deceased mother. Hannah is astounded by the things Susan knows about her, and she plans to visit Susans home for a private reading. However, before the session, Susan is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Hannah decides to find her killer. Meanwhile, Hannah is assisting American Cathy Yates, who is looking for evidence of where her father is buried (he died in a World War II disaster during training exercises for D-Day and is listed as missing in action). Hannah is also helping her good friend Alison, whose elderly father seems to be slipping mentally. Are these pursuits somehow connected? Told in the first person by the likable Hannah, the novel combines present and past effectively, with vivid details of wartime in the English countryside woven throughout the engaging story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)