The Grift

The Grift by Debra Ginsberg won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association book prize for mystery this year. I received a copy of the book at the awards dinner last year, so I've been looking forward to reading it. Marina is a fake psychic who charges big bucks to tell people what they want to hear. She moves from Florida to northern San Diego County in California, and is putting money away so she can retire at age 37--not a bad idea. One of her first gigs in California is to work a party where she meets many of the clients that will become her regulars and the central figures--and suspects--in the mystery that unfolds.

About halfway through the book, she develops real psychic ability. This is, naturally, beneficial in solving the mystery involving arson and murder. But it is tough on business. She can no longer give the vague, generic readings her clients have come to expect. She sees detailed pictures of their immediate futures--mostly events they'd rather not hear about. The book is entertaining and a fast read. She's not quite Mary Higgins Clark, but the story does take some fun turns.

Ginsberg has written several memoirs and another novel--Blind Submission--which is a Devil Wears Prada-type send-up of an infamously difficult literary agent in San Diego. I haven't read the memoirs, but I did read Submission because a good friend of mine used to work for the agent. It was a fairly entertaining story, but I think I only enjoyed it because I felt like I was "in" on the joke. I'm not sure if anyone outside of publishing would find it interesting.

The Grift wasn't as good as I expected--I mean, it's award winning, after all--but I don't regret reading it. Continuing my string of books about the supernatural, next up is The Monsters of Templeton, which promises to be part historical novel and part ghost story . . . then maybe I'll head back to reality. Or, you know, as real as a work of fiction can get.