All Things Undying

by Marcia Talley

Overview

Hannah is stunned when a stranger stops her on the street to deliver a message from her long-dead mother. Susan Parker, Hannah learns, is a popular television medium whose accurate predictions leave fans and critics alike puzzled and intrigued. In spite of her scepticism, Hannah schedules a private reading. But on the morning they are to meet, Susan is struck by a hit-and-run driver. An accident? Hannah doesn't think so - especially when she discovers that more than one person had good reason to want Susan dead . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780100487
Publisher:	Severn House Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Series:	Hannah Ives Mysteries , #9
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,120,103
File size:	307 KB

About the Author

Marcia Talley is the author of five previous books featuring Hannah Ives. A winner of the Malice Domestic writing grant and an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel, Ms. Talley won an Agatha and an Anthony Award for her short story "Too Many Cooks" and an Agatha Award for her short story "Driven to Distraction." She is the editor of two mystery collaborations, and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives with her husband in Annapolis, Maryland.

Editorial Reviews

Americans Hannah and Paul Ives are vacationing in Dartmouth, England, when Hannah is approached by clairvoyant Susan Parker, who gives her information purportedly from her deceased mother. Hannah is astounded by the things Susan knows about her, and she plans to visit Susan’s home for a private reading. However, before the session, Susan is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and Hannah decides to find her killer. Meanwhile, Hannah is assisting American Cathy Yates, who is looking for evidence of where her father is buried (he died in a World War II disaster during training exercises for D-Day and is listed as missing in action). Hannah is also helping her good friend Alison, whose elderly father seems to be slipping mentally. Are these pursuits somehow connected? Told in the first person by the likable Hannah, the novel combines present and past effectively, with vivid details of wartime in the English countryside woven throughout the engaging story.(September 2010)

Booklist

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 mattersis 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.

Kirkus Reviews

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