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This was another book club pick that I normally wouldn’t
have read on my own. But from the first
chapter I was hooked.
Towner Whitney fled her childhood home of Salem, Ma in order
to escape her crazy family and after the death of her twin sister. But she’s been drawn back by the disappearance
of her Great-Aunt Eva. In the opening
paragraph Towner admits that she herself is crazy and lies all the time. Her mother Mae is a recluse, living on an
island and rescuing abused women and supporting them by teaching them how to
make lace and selling it. Both her
mother and her aunts are lace readers; women who can see the future in the
patterns of the lace they make.
This is a complicated story that flits between fantasy and reality;
past and present. Told mostly from Towner’s
point of view the lines are always blurred as she tries to piece together the
reason why her Aunt has disappeared and how that will affect the rest of her
life. This is a mystery on many levels;
the disappearance of Eva; the mystery of what happened to Towner and her twin
sister; who really is Cal Boynton, the resident cult leader. Naturally since the setting is Salem, there
are witches who are on a collision course with the Cal Boynton and his
particular brand of religion.
This book was hard to put down. It’s fast paced with twists and turns that
I wasn’t expecting. The ending is particularly
shocking but does help to make the rest of the story make sense.
This is Barry’s first novel and I’m looking forward to
reading her second one The Map of True Places. I highly recommend this book.
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