Now You See Her
Cecilia Tishy
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Mysterious Press
ISBN: 089296796X

Regina Cutter has plenty of life under her belt, especially a fickle paranormal ability.

Cast aside for a trophy wife, 40-something Regina gets a lemon of a divorce & turns it into lemonade. She's taken over the legacies of a dearly-departed aunt: a town house in Boston's Barlow Square, a dog co-owned with a lethal-looking biker ... & a startling paranormal ability. She's never been happier, until a realtor friend begs her to play ghostbuster in a historic Back Bay home. While Reggie can get a reading from most objects, she doesn't really know what it all means. Hasn't had enough practice. (I feel another Regina Cutter caper coming on) Sometimes nothing happens, & then again, sometimes dishes fall off the wall, or a cold wind rushes through the house, & she has no explanations.

As the ultimate makeover, helping Detective Frank Devaney solve a crime, beats a face lift any day ... unless it's a 13-year-old murder, & the convicted man is still protesting his innocence, which might, for once, be true.

The trail is cold & the evidence meager until Reggie gets a “hot tip” in the form of a burning sensation under her ribs every time she passes the site of the murder. Being new to Boston, Reggie has to read up on what was happening in her neighborhood all those years ago, & in doing so uncovers a ranting street preacher who actually makes a lot of sense; street drugs & illegal industrial waste disposal; a politician in high places, hoping to go even higher; a son who was in the wrong place at the wrong time; a condominium with an unsavory past, & an old house with more than termites in its woodwork.

Now You See Her is an entertaining evening's mystery, replete with believable people, layers of latent evil, & some devious characters, although I got the impression Reggie & Det. Devaney have worked together in a previous time.

More from Cecilia Tishy:
Fall to Pieces: a Kate Banning mystery.
(03/27/05)

Rebecca