ALL THINGS UNDYING

A medium delivers messages from the past.

While shopping the High Street in Dartmouth, Hannah Ives, an American vacationing in Devon, is stopped by Susan Parker, who says Hannah’s mother wishes Susan to communicate with Hannah, which is a little surprising since Hannah’s mom is long dead. Is Susan a charlatan? Hannah’s husband thinks so, but the owner of Horn Hill, the B&B the Iveses are staying at, tells them that she’s a well-known TV medium. She proposes to invite Susan to supper, along with the Iveses’ friend Alison, her mate and her dad. Later, Susan confronts Alison’s elderly father, Stephen Bailey, with words about a ruby ring and a flower, causing the old man to blanch and the TV session to fizzle. When Susan is run over the next day, Hannah begins making inquiries about her accident—or was it murder? Complicating matters is the brash young American who’s come to find the burial ground of her dad, killed during a World War II training exercise that may have occurred on Bailey’s farm, which was requisitioned by the U.S. Army. More secrets come to light, but none more startling than those involving a wartime romance culminating in a disappearance.

Hannah (Without a Grave, 2009, etc.) is so endearing that even readers who scoff at second sight will be touched by the poignant rendering of “Abba Dabba Honeymoon” relayed to her.