A Billy Sunday Kind of Love
A Psychic Socialite Story
By Jane Sevier
If this opening line doesn’t grab you nothing will. “When Calpurnia Waters volunteered to let the Amazing Waldo make her disappear, she never dreamed it would be for good.”
Ms. Sevier’s second novel of the Psychic Socialite series jumps right into magic, murder, and mayhem. Many of my favorite characters from Fortune’s Fool return and we are introduced to a new group of marvelously mysterious players, each with a set of questionable motives. We meet the Amazing Waldo Peterfreund, “master conjurer and disciple of the mysteries of the most ancient of sorcery and magic”, a man with a long dark past. Sister Louise Henslowe, of the Tabernacle of Light, God’s vessel for healing the sick and Henry Barcroft, her able and ambitious assistant. Brother Mordecai Jones, Pastor of the Church of the Redeemer’s Blood, the fire and brimstone preacher driven with a mission of his own. And of course, the series of likeable and sympathetic victims whose bodies begin to stack up in Memphis like cord wood.
We see a little less of our heroine, Nell Marchand, in favor of a deeper look at her spiritualist medium, Dr. Joseph Calendar. And this is a good thing. Shifting the spotlight to Dr. Calendar clarifies his mysterious background and offers insight to his enduring affection for Nell.
There is a lot going on in this novel including important revelations that go well beyond solving the Memphis murders.
This story stands on it’s own but I would strongly encourage readers new to the series to read Fortune’s Fool first. It will provide solid background information. Another word of advice, before reading Billy Sunday find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted because you will not want to put the book down.
