BOOK REVIEW: The Deception by Kim Taylor Blakemore

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

October is the perfect month to read the new novel by Kim Taylor Blakemore, The Deception. Set in 1877, in New Hampshire, the novel introduces the reader to the world of the spiritualists, men and women who (ostensibly) tried to bridge the gap between the living and the dead, and the many grieving people who believed in them or wanted to.

It could be lucrative for men and women to lecture on spiritualist topics as well as serving as mediums, staging seances with differing gimmicks to draw people in. Generally, these spiritualists are seen as fraudsters. However, they were quite popular at the time.

In The Deception, one such medium, Maud Price, a one-time child prodigy, is now grown up and has lost the aid of her spirit guide. As a result, she’s no longer convincing and is losing customers to flashier performers of the arts. In desperation, she confides her woes to a fellow spiritualist, who suggests she contact Clementine Watkins for a consultation.

Clementine is a tricky character. Criminal through and through, she and her partner, a failed actor named Russell Sprague, have developed a sideline, staging seances for mediums. They provide the special effects. In particular, Russell does voices and noises while Clementine excels at ferreting out details about (and often small possessions of) the recently departed.

Maud is appalled. She’s not a fraud. She honestly does speak with the dead. Only without her spirit guide, her contact with the other world is unpredictable. She’s just about destitute. She’s desperate. Clementine preys upon the weak. Before long, she takes over Maud’s house and her business. It’s a short step to blackmail and coercion.

Handsome, too-charming Russell plays good cop to Clementine’s bad cop. But he’s no more trustworthy than she is. Or is he? Maud can’t tell. What she can tell is that there are malevolent spirits about Clementine. Clementine has terrible secrets in her past.

The novel has a wonderful premise. In this business based on deceiving the grieving, how believable is someone who really can communicate with ghosts? Especially once she starts employing a few tricks of the trade? How can she regain her self-respect? And how can she get away from a master manipulator like Clementine?

Clementine is a superbly drawn villain. She’s evil personified, but with enough of a backstory to allow a glimmer of sympathy for her to creep in. The author has a gift for these characterizations, these eerie, dangerous, mentally disturbed women. Her novels are great!