THE PERFECT FRAUD

A fake psychic wakes up to find that her abilities are real in
LaCorte’s debut thriller.

Claire is descended from a line of female psychics, but she’s
never truly had the gift. In fact, she feels like she’s faking it in many
aspects of her life: her job, her relationship, and her family. Her father
suffered a series of strokes when Claire was in high school, and the subsequent
distance that sprang up between her and her mother has left her unwilling to
open herself up to love. When her father suffers yet another stroke and then
dies, however, and she returns to Pennsylvania, she and her mother finally
begin to speak honestly with one another, opening up all the parts of Claire
she had been keeping locked down. Flying home to Sedona after the funeral, she
not only finds new fulfillment with and commitment to her boyfriend, but she
also begins to manifest a true psychic gift in her readings for others. When
Rena, a blowsy woman she met on the plane, comes for a reading, Claire knows
that something is wrong. Rena’s daughter, Stephanie, is terribly sick, but her illness,
which has mystified every doctor she’s seen, may have a darker, deeper cause.
Claire finds herself in a race against time to save the little girl. LaCorte
splits the narration between Claire and Rena, alternating chapters, and she
truly does create two very distinct and believable voices, a difficult feat.
It’s easy to be sympathetic to Claire, while Rena seems immediately to be an
unreliable narrator, but the voices complement each other, building two sides
of the story that officially intertwine about halfway through. At the heart of
this novel is Claire’s realization that love, “a desperate, life-sustaining,
and imperative connection,” can also be “pure and light and joyful.” Make no
mistake: This is a dark, dark thriller, and the villain is absolute. But
alternating voices allow for a more nuanced building of tension as LaCorte
contrasts this darkness to Claire’s own fragile optimism.

LaCorte delves deeply into horrible things that humans do—and,
as in life, not all evil is punished—but still offers hope and healing in the
end.