I know – another book review so fast! WOW! New Years resolutions at work.
I was turned onto Jeffrey Ford from my brother-in-law Scott via The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque. He also read this book and wrote a review in September of 2005.
Here is a brief summary lifted from Booklist:
A band of con artists–cum–spiritual mediums focus their psychic and sleuthing powers on a murder mystery in Ford’s offbeat, thoroughly researched fifth novel (The Physiognomy; The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque; etc.), set in Depression-era Long Island, on the posh North Shore. Diego, a 17-year-old Mexican illegal immigrant, narrates the escapades, as he follows his mentor and surrogate father Thomas Schell, who rescued him from the street and tutored him in subjects from English to chicanery. Disguised as a Hindu swami, Diego helps Schell conduct phony séances to bilk wealthy Long Islanders. But when Schell sees the apparition of a young girl during a séance and then hears of the disappearance of Charlotte Barnes, daughter of shipping magnate Harold Barnes, he determines to solve the case. Schell and Diego—along with henchman Antony and phony psychic Morgan Shaw—find Charlotte’s dead body covered by a cloth painted with a Ku Klux Klan symbol.
That is of course incomplete since I don’t want to give “the good stuff” away. The plot is satisfying … at the end. You are left hanging and that is ok, everything wraps up nicely.
This book is more “pulp” than the Portrait of Mrs Charbuque in that every chapter ends in a cliffhanger or some “moment of revelation” . That keeps the pace moving quickly, even during more serious passages. It reminded me of a cross between The Prestige (fake seances) and The Alienist (a team of people solving the death of a child (and soon discovered multiple children) ).
I think the language in the work (as Scott mentions in his review) is more “common” and reflects the character well and at the same time the authors ability to change voice to the character.
Jeffrey Ford has proven to me an author on my “gotta get it list”. It is a short list, along with Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.