MURDER ON THE ASTRAL PLANE

by Jaqueline Girdner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

Because her friend Barbara Chu is worried that Kate Jasper's habit of walking into rooms full of people only to see one of them die might be a karmic impairment, Kate agrees to accompany her to black lesbian psychic Justine Howe's for a session. Naturally, Barbara and Kate walk in on a room full of a dozen people--Kate is #13--and, naturally, they immediately arrange a s‚ance, with ten of the participants sitting blindfolded in a circle, Justine's nephew Zarathustra and her sweetie, animal psychic Linda Underwood, chatting outside, and designated observer Denise Parnell, the tightly wound radio host of the alternative-lifestyle talk show Acceptance, off in the bathroom. Guess what happens. The latest victim of Kate's Typhoid Mary curse (Death Hits the Fan, 1998, etc.), florid seductress Silk (n‚e Polly Esther) Sokoloff, had said enough to offend everyone present, but was her tackiness sufficient motive for strangling her with a cat toy? What do the Paloma cops hope to learn by asking all the participants for their Myers-Briggs personality types and such psychic gobbledygook as enneagrams? And, since this sort of interrogation leaves plenty of room for novelty-store owner Kate's tenth dip into homicide investigation, what can she hope to discover that the alert constabulary can't? Largely ignoring the delicious absurdity of a roomful of clueless psychics, Girdner concentrates on painting each suspect and incident in the broadest Day-Glo strokes. The result, untainted by the slightest breeze of reality, is bustling but as lifeless as Silk.

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0759283648

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1999

Categories: FICTION