Customer Reviews

Duplicity

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In New York City, Carlos ekes out a below sustenance living as a psychic detective. Though he knows that present day clients pays the bills, Carlos prefers mysteries of the darkened past. So when he read a strange missive on a blackboard, Carlos decides to use his psychic friends starting with Joe Davidson to make contact with Judge Crater, who vanished in the 1930s.

Carlos and friends make contact, but the Judge is not a friendly ghost and is a bit upset by being disturbed. Crater informs Carlos that he will find out the truth of what happened to him, but will also be punished by what he learns. Though concerned because he understands the strength of the other side, Carols begins investigating the life of Judge Joseph Crater before he disappeared. The judge lived a life filled with violence, suffered dual personality disorder and appears to have been the victim of a psychic murder that might end in the present with a second homicide from the afterlife; the target being Carlos.

DUPLICITY is an entertaining tale starring several delightfully way out characters, especially the hero and his trio of psychic pals. Everyone wants a Joe passing a stock market tip to them (adds realistic sense to ESP). The story line is fun to follow as it blends an otherworldly scenario with an urban legend inside a noir. The use of Judge Crater who ranks with Jimmy Hoffa for vanishing acts adds a sense of reality to the plot. Though Carlos' motive to conduct the inquiries seems weird even for a weirdo like him, fans of paranormal mysteries will enjoy the DUPLICITY of life and afterlife that this tale so delightfully provides its audience.

Harriet Klausner

DUPLICITY is the kind of mystery novel that might have resulted from a collaboration between E. L. Doctorow, Stephen King, and Charles Bukowski-with a bit too much King and not enough Doctorow for my own tastes.

The book is easier to surrender to if one believes some psychics are legitimate and in ghostly possession, but I was able to enjoy it as a story about someone who works with psychics he believes provide him at least clues (and who doesn't believe in ghosts). Carlos, the "psychic detective" narrating his investigation into a long-ago disappearance does not claim to have psychic powers and acknowledges that most psychics are fakes, but has consistently gained insights from a few. The three he involves in his quest for New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater, who disappeared during the 1930s, are the novel's most interesting characters.

The novel is a page-turner and fits into the detective genre in having a knight-errant drop-out from the conventional world glimpsing a lot of official corruption. The voice of the 1930s judge does not ring quite true to me, but my primary frustration is with Carlos's motivation to stir this particular congealed murk and the puzzling lack of following through to the fruits of his search.