The Mysteries

Starred review from January 17, 2005
Despite its contemporary settings (Scotland, London and Texas), Tuttle's superlative dark fantasy, her first novel since The Pillow Friend
(1996), draws on the classic, largely Celtic folklore of people who vanish mysteriously because they have gone to the realm of the sidhe
—the fairy folk. Some never return, at least not to their families. Others can be found again, such as Amy Schneider, rescued by the engaging Ian Kennedy, who took up a career of tracing such persons after going in search of his missing father. Some, like the melancholy woman who calls herself Fred, won't stay in the mundane world even if you try to force them. Ian is afraid this might be the trouble with his latest quarry, the beautiful Peri Lensky. Complications arise when Peri's boyfriend, Hugh Bell-Rivers, says she may have gone off with a man named Mider, which happens to be the name of a sidhe
king. All the while, Ian is tormented by the disappearance of his own true love, Jenny Macedo, some years before. Tuttle has total command of setting, style and her folklore sources. The ambiguous ending holds out hope for both Ian and the reader. In a field overflowing with sequels, it's refreshing to find a fantasy that truly merits one. Agent, Howard Morhaim. (Mar. 8)

Forecasts:
Advance praise from Dean Koontz, George R.R. Martin, Kelley Armstrong and Michael Moorcock will remind readers that this John Campbell Award–winning author remains one of fantasy's best.

February 15, 2005
When her 21-year-old daughter Peri goes missing, Laura Lensky hires missing person specialist Ian Kennedy to find her. Kennedy undertakes the job with some reluctance since it closely mirrors an earlier, bittersweet success -as well as an ancient Celtic myth. Drawing on Celtic folklore, the author of "Windhaven" (with George R.R. Martin) crafts an atmospheric tale of modern fantasy set in the Scottish Highlands. The borders between perception and reality grow hazy as two worlds meet and those who cross between them are changed forever. A good addition to most fantasy collections, with strong appeal to fans of Celtic legends.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2005
Yank-in-London Ian Kennedy is a professional finder of missing persons. As an amateur, he found the father who deserted his family when Ian was 10, and at 30, the longtime girlfriend who walked on him. Now fortysomething, he needs business to pick up. Enter Laura Lensky, whose daughter, Peri, vanished after a peculiar date with her fiance three years ago. As Ian's investigation proceeds, more and more resemblances to his first professional case crop up, which is worrisome because that job required recovering the missing person from the Celtic fairies of Scotland, who aren't to be trifled with. Using brief summaries of famous fairy kidnappings and other disappearances to space chapters that either follow Ian's present case or hark back to that first one as well as his preprofessional life, and evoking Ian's loneliness to strike romantic sparks between him and Laura, Tuttle tells a tale of romance and the supernatural that perhaps even Daphne du Maurier might have been proud to have penned.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)