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Publisher:
Coachlight Press |
Release
Date: June 2004 |
ISBN:
0971679045 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Trade Paperback |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Read
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Historical [1918, San Diego] |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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Voices Airy
By Catherine Karp
After
the death of her father, young Lucy Crumb leaves her childhood home
in Topeka to join her older sister Rosalind in San Diego. She does
this against the wishes of her family and friends, for her sister
went away in disgrace after becoming pregnant when Lucy was a small
child. While traveling down on the train, Lucy is taken under the
wing of the wealthy Milnes who are going to the same place - the
neat, organized Anna and her shell-shocked brother Joseph who are
going to play such a part in her life. Rosalind now works from her
rented home as a spiritual medium and is just as beautiful and captivating
as Lucy remembers. But is she taking money under false pretences
and telling the bereaved what they want to hear, or are her “voices
airy” truly from the Other Side?
There is a fascinating story in these pages that
will keep you guessing as you wonder whether the protagonists’
fortunes will prosper or fail, and whether Rosalind is an altruistic
saint or a conniving sinner. It isn’t a very long book, but
there is plenty packed in here to enjoy and enthrall, but for me
the best thing of all is the author’s tangible evocation of
1918 San Diego: shell-shocked veterans, cheap picture palaces where
films are a recent invention, the streets full of masked people
trying not to get the flu, and doctors prescribing strange medicines.
At times it is like reading a newspaper from the time, or looking
through a time portal to the way things were done back then. This
mix of history and story in perfect balance is mesmerizing (to borrow
a spiritualist term) and what good historical fiction ought to be
about. Catherine Karp’s first novel Gilded (also
reviewed on this site) was one of my top ten picks for 2002; this
is in the same caliber.
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