Kaleidoscope

December 1, 2001
Madame Karitska's trade as a fortune-teller attracts a strange array of clients, including an artistic woman whose husband abandons her to join a religious cult and an Italian immigrant with a "cursed" child. Karitska also helps her good friend, Detective-Lieutenant Pruden, solve the hit-and-run death of a young violinist and the murder of a local philanthropist. Her most troubling case, however, occurs when a subway incident leaves her with an attache case full of diamonds. This well-written, episodic adventure, with a generous and charming Old World heroine who first appeared 25 years ago in The Clairvoyant Countess, will appeal to many, especially fans of Gilman's Mrs. Polifax series.

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2001
The author of the Mrs. Pollifax novels returns to a character she hasn't revisited in decades--the charming clairvoyant Madame Karitska. While the chapters tell an intertwined and progressive tale, many of them are also small mysteries in themselves. Although the characterizations are featherweight, the writing moves as gracefully and attractively as the madame, who works by " psychometry," holding an object that was in close contact with the person she is reading. She brings those who love together, provides just the right nudge to get a father and daughter back in touch, and helps an artist to recognize her talent. She lives in genteel shabbiness in an urban brownstone and has a large collection of friends and acquaintances--police officers, painters, ex-cons, former Viennese neighbors. She's also been very young and poor in Kabul, and one of the gossamer subplots involves some nearly overlooked terrorist threats. A light read with some heavy underpinnings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)

December 24, 2001
Fans of Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series will welcome this tantalizing sequel to The Clairvoyant Countess
(1975), whose psychic heroine is adept at psychometry, "the faculty of divining knowledge about an object or a person connected with it through contact with the object." Here Madame Karitska and her friend on the Trafton police force, Detective Lieutenant Pruden, share a series of adventures in which they confront the heartless killer of a talented young violinist, save a deaf-mute child from the accusations of her supposed benefactress, help a spoiled heiress find a purpose in life and assist a timid artist to gain confidence and fame. A travel writer suffering from a mysterious illness, a beautiful little boy who can't speak and, finally, Roger Gillespie, an intelligence officer on the trail of a rogue genius who plans doomsday from his headquarters at an electronics company in Maine—all bring their pains and problems to Madame Karitska's shabby brownstone, where they find not only solace and solutions but frequently soul mates among her other clients. One wonders if the author herself is psychic, for the mad scientist's plan to bring the world to a halt bears an uncanny resemblance to the unfolding terror of the past few months. Hopefully, Gilman won't wait another quarter century before she brings back Madame Karitska, if nothing else to explain the sudden, rather stingy ending of this fascinating, kaleidoscopic potpourri.