In The Accidental Medium, British author Tracy Whitwell launches the first in a hilariously clever paranormal cozy mystery series.
Readers will be enraptured by the freewheeling narrative voice of Tanz, a struggling, 38-year-old British actress waiting for her next big role. Neurotic and self-deprecating, Tanz is going through a rough patch. She's grieving the loss of an unrequited love, a 32-year-old male friend who died in a car crash--and whose ghost keeps appearing in her dreams. Tanz has also become a "borderline alcoholic" who indulges in "buckets of Merlot," and she's "addicted to old-school horror films and magazines about murderers." Such behaviors were exacerbated when "the complete bastard [she] used to love moved out and left [her] with a huge rent to find."
When Tanz takes an interim job at the Mystery Pot, a local New Age shop with tarot card readings, she fears she's plunged into a world of "nutters." Then more ghosts suddenly start appearing, enabling Tanz to make predictions about peoples' futures, and she reluctantly begins to utilize her new clairvoyant skills. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she's visited by a murder victim who enlists Tanz's help in identifying her killer and bringing the perpetrator to justice.
The sharp-tongued, street-smart ingenuity of Whitwell's lovable heroine, along with tight plotting and a cast of offbeat characters, makes for a wildly fun, bright-as-lightning start to a crafty series. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines