The Grift
by Debra Ginsberg
Published by Shaye Areheart Books
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Reviewed by Kim Reis
Marina Marks has been grifting all her life. As a child, her mother had her telling fortunes for drug money. Marina couldn’t really see the future; she was just very observant and said what the person wanted to hear.
This ability had served her quite well into her adulthood, working as a psychic and getting people to depend on her. Then she moved to California and, to earn a few dollars and to find new clients, takes a job doing psychic readings for the guests at a party thrown by a wealthy couple. Marina meets several people who become regular clients.
As her clients’ lives spin out of control, Marina meets a man and falls in love. That is when she starts really seeing the future but doesn’t know how to control this new ability. When she is unable to stop a murder and her past catches up with her, she becomes the primary suspect, yet can’t tell the police how she knows the things she has seen.
The story moves deftly and convincingly from grifter to gifted without the paranormal getting in the way. Marina is a woman who never believed in the psychic abilities her clients believed she possessed. Her narrative explanations, and occasional missteps, are clearly those of someone who is observant and in tune with the people she counsels. Her confusion and fear as the visions start to appear is completely believable.
My response to the ending made my sister-in-law grab the book out of my hand as soon as I closed the cover.
Armchair Interviews says: Well done read you’ll be telling others about.
Author’s Web site: http://www.DebraGinsberg.com