While not usually a big deal, one overlooked email would haunt teacher Gilda Greco. Had she read it, former student Sarah McHenry might still be alive.Suspecting foul play, Constable Leo Mulligan plays on Gilda’s guilt and persuades her to participate in a séance facilitated by one of Canada’s best-known psychics. Six former students also agree to participate. At first cooperative and willing, … willing, their camaraderie is short-lived as old grudges and rivalries emerge. The séance is a bust.Determined to solve Sarah’s murder, Gilda launches her own investigation and uncovers shocking revelations that could put several lives–including her own–in danger. Can Gilda and the psychic solve this case before the killer strikes again?
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Dollycas’s Thoughts
Former teacher Gilda Greco is drawn back into the past when one of her former students dies. Was it an accident or was it murder?
Constable Leo Mulligan has persuaded Gilda to return to Parry Sound and reunite with some of her former students and participate in a séance to try to get clarity about the young woman’s death. The first séance ends abruptly and they try again and again. Each time the level of true cooperation diminishes but Gilda gets to see the truth about who her grade eight students have turned out to be.
The author took me back to junior high, you know the cliques of girls and boys, the Barbie’s, the Ken’s, the popular kids, the nerds. How much everything changes though when you are adults and out in the real world. It took me a little bit of time sort out these characters and their relationships but it became clearer the deeper I got into the story. They all felt very authentic, all dealing with different issues in their lives and trying to get to the truth of how their fellow student Sarah McHenry died.
Since my son’s death, I have thought several times about contacting a physic or a medium so I found the séance that took place within the story to be quite interesting. There are always skeptics – but when you lose a loved one and you miss them so much you are willing to try anything to reconnect with them. Especially if your loved one took their own life like my son leaving so many unanswered questions. I think that is part of the reason I was so enthralled with those parts of the story. It was also because the author wrote it so well that you feel you were right in the room watching it all take place.
The reunion to solve the mystery was a unique concept. We quickly saw the constables train of thought in bringing Gilda into the group. Sarah has reached out to her teacher in an email Gilda thought was spam and hadn’t read. If Sarah thought Gilda could help her then he knew Gilda could help him solve his case. Very much a closed room mystery we knew the people around that table were his suspects. Gilda even thought he could be involved in Sarah’s death. It was very enlightening to watch Gilda take her time meeting with each of the students trying to figure out if one of the was actually a killer.
The subject matter took me personally into this story so I think I may have “a different” point of view that most cozy mystery readers who read this story. It was very well plotted and written and had strong characters. One character really pulled at my heartstrings because in some ways he reminded me of my son. So for that, this wasn’t a “fun” or “entertaining” read for me. It was a novel that made me think. Think of so many things outside of the mystery to be solved. Circumstances hit me at a different level. I am sure more deeply than the author ever intended. I did enjoy the story but in a way I never expected.