Book One, The Psychic Socialite Series
When her husband dies and leaves her penniless, a 1930s Memphis socialite becomes a fortuneteller, only to discover she has the true sight.
In 1933, a fourth of Americans are unemployed, John Dillinger grabs headlines knocking off banks, FDR is in the White House promising a New Deal for the country, and Boss Crump reigns supreme over Memphis.
Nell Marchand has never worked a day in her life. When her philandering skunk of a husband suddenly drops dead, leaving her without one red cent to her name, she lands smack dab in the middle of the hard times she has only heard about in newsreels. Nell tries to find a job to support herself and the household that depends on her, really she does. Her typing is a disaster, she cuts off every call in her one day as a telephone operator, and laundress leaves her back aching. There has to be an easier way.
A reluctant visit to prosperous Joseph Calendar, her flighty mother-in-law's medium, persuades Nell that there are fortunes to be made in, well, telling fortunes. As society fortuneteller Madame Nelora, she is soon the toast of Memphis. But when a desperate father begs Nell to find his daughter, she has a true vision of the missing girl. Terrified that she's losing her mind, Nell turns to Calendar. She may suspect he's a charlatan, but he is the only man who can help her embrace her gift and the responsibility it entails. To find the girl-and unravel a secret from her own past-Nell must outwit a corrupt banker and his gangster pals who will do anything to keep her hidden.
Fortune's Fool was an RWA 2010 Golden Heart finalist.
