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.