NAOMI

NAOMI by Douglas Clegg
Subterranean Press - 2001
ISBN: 1892284758 - Hardback, Signed Limited Edition

Reviewed by Beverly J. Rowe, MyShelf.Com
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Jake Richmond and Naomi Faulkner grew up together in Carthage, Virginia. They were best friends, sharing everything, but something terrible happened to Naomi and she left Carthage at age 17. Jake migrated to Manhattan and lost track of Naomi. When Jake and his wife divorce his thoughts again turn to Naomi. He learns that she also moved to Manhattan. Is it coincidence that she lived in the apartment across the hall from his? Jake discovers that she was recently killed in a subway accident that might not have been an accident. Of course she's not dead...she can't be dead -- Jake can feel her presence. He still loves her. He even sees her in the subway and she seems to be willing him to follow her.

Maddy Sparke is renovating her seventh brownstone. This one is going to be the grandest of all. She anticipates selling it for several million dollars to pay off her debts and leave her sitting pretty. However, the workmen discover a very old burial chamber under the building complete with ancient artifacts and evidence of witchcraft trials. Maddy finds the diary of a young woman named Naomi, who seems to be one of the tortured remains under Maddy's brownstone. The discovery turns Maddy's world upside down, and the witch-ghost Naomi leads her to the underground maze of tunnels beneath Manhattan where her murderer now lives in his evil afterlife form.

Naomi Faulkner's ghost leads Jake to the same evil labyrinth. Why are they drawn to this place and to a homeless boy named Romeo who has grown up in the subways? This is Clegg's best novel yet with complex plotting and believable characters that lead you with breathtaking suspense right up to the ending that feels just right.