High Spirits (Five Star Expressions) [Hardcover]

Alice Duncan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Five Star Expressions | Publication Date: November 2008

Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to folks with more money than sense, can scarcely believe that her best client wants her to get her spiritual control, Rolly, to appear at a séance in a speakeasy. Bad enough that Daisy made up Rolly when she was ten, but now Rolly has to perform at a seance for a bunch of murdering gangsters?

When the place is raided, Daisy’s troubles multiply.

Add to the mix Daisy’s nemesis (and her husband’s best friend) Detective Sam Rotondo; Vicenzo Maggiori, leader of the bootlegging racket in the area; and Flossie Mosser, befuddled floozy; and you have a rollicking adventure that Daisy isn’t sure she’s going to survive.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 257 pages
• Publisher: Five Star (ME) (November 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594146950
• ISBN-13: 978-1594146954
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,448,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In an effort to avoid what I knew I should be doing with my life (writing'it sounded so hard), for several years I expressed my creative side by dancing and singing. I belonged to two professional international folk-dance groups. Dancing made for a lousy living, but it was certainly fun. I also sang in a Balkan women's choir. I got to sing the tenor drone, for the most part. My first book, ONE BRIGHT MORNING, was published by HarperMonogram in 1995. What's more, it won the HOLT Medallion for Best First Novel. It was a good start, but my career has been . . . rocky, is the best word for it, I guess. Publishing's a brutal business, but I've got more persistence than brains so the publishing gods haven't killed me yet, although they seem to be trying awfully darned hard, curse them. In September of 1996 my herd of wild dachshunds and I moved from Pasadena, CA, to Roswell, NM, where my mother's family settled fifty years before the aliens crashed. We love it here. No smog, no crowds, no money, but I had no money in California, either, and you don't need so much of it here.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spirited post WWI satirical historical, November 27, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Spirits (Five Star Expressions) (Hardcover)

In February 1921 in Pasadena, California Daisy Gumm Majesty makes a living for her and her disabled WWI veteran husband Billy by pretending to be a spiritualist. Her otherworldly control Rolly, who she invented when she was ten years old, enables her to put bread on the table as Billy is unable to work though he despises how she makes money.

Her best client Mrs. Kincaid begs Daisy to do a reading at a speakeasy; she says no hiding behind Rolly not stepping inside a den of iniquity. However, eventually she reluctantly agrees though not for her client's daughter Stacy who calls herself Flossie Mosser who frequents the joint run by mobster Vicenzo Maggiori. With Mrs. Kincaid's kind son Harold escorting her Daisy enters the speakeasy while Billy's best friend homicide detective Sam Rotondo worries about her especially when the cops raid the joint.

More a satirical historical lampooning the Prohibition stereotypes than a mystery, fans of Alice Duncan's spirited post WWI thriller will relish this fine entry as Daisy gets into one troubling incident after another. Although the plot is thin, the insight into 1920s California is deep and vivid while the cast is strong especially Billy struggling mentally due to his war related physical disabilities. Fans will enjoy Mrs. Majesty's latest reading.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars A Highly Spirited Leading Lady, December 10, 2009

By 

Jacqueline J. Griffey (, Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: High Spirits (Five Star Expressions) (Hardcover)

Alice Duncan's HIGH SPIRITS is not the first of her books I've read and she never disappoints me. Daisy Gumm Majesty has enough spirit of her own to deal with the spirits out of which she makes her living. War, her family, and life in general keep you turning pages to see how on earth Daisy is going to manage the things that come up; keep her home and income intact; and herself out of trouble. Alice Duncan is adept at developing interesting characters and plot twists putting Daisy in danger as she walks a tightrope between the physical and mental problems of her beloved family in the twenties when the rest of the country was dealing with prohibition and other national problems. Duncan effectively brings the reader in to experience this era our mothers and mothers-in-law lived through. To her dismay, Daisy's talents as a medium catch the attention of a dangerous mobster. The owner of a Speak-Easy, he demands Daisy come there to channel spirits for him and his friends. Talk about a command performance! A policeman the family knows promptly steps in to make Daisy part of his plan to trap the mobster and set up a raid. Danger; heartbreak over her disabled veteran husband; the characters of her family; and the clients Daisy has for her paranormal career are interwoven to keep you rooting for Daisy and turning pages to the exciting and rewarding end. Alice Duncan's books are delights for her cozy mystery fans.