Strong Spirits [Paperback]

Alice Duncan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2003

Welcome to sunny Pasadena, California, just a stone's throw from Hollywood. The 1920s are in full roar. Prohibition isn't stopping anybody, and Daisy Gumm Majesty is getting by the best way she knows how - catering to the rich and famous as a medium who put the "con" in conjuror.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With her husband, Billy, an invalid as a result of mustard gas during the First World War, Daisy Gumm Majesty is doing her part to support her family. Daisy and Billy live with her parents and her aunt in a little bungalow in Pasadena, and although her parents approve of her unusual work, her husband is not too happy. But Daisy, a medium to the rich and famous, perseveres. Holding seances and interpreting tarot cards, she has built up quite a reputation. One client, in particular, has a great need for her services. Mrs. Kincaid relies on Daisy's advice on a regular basis. When the wealthy Kincaids become involved in bank fraud, Daisy is asked to keep her eyes and ears open by Detective Sam Rotondo. Although Sam and Daisy bristle in each other's company, she does agree to help him out. Duncan's tale teems with period detail, but it is her characters who make it so enjoyable, especially effervescent Daisy. Maria Hatton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821775170
• ISBN-13: 978-0821775172
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,528,859 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

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic fun! 4 and 9/10 stars!, May 21, 2003

By 

curvynovelsdotinfo "[e-mail]" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strong Spirits (Paperback)

Heroine:  average

      Redheaded Daisy Gumm Majesty is not your average 1920s spiritual medium. Rather, she's a canny and perceptive girl who lacks an actual connection to the "other side", but who uses her unique understanding of the human condition as a "spiritual counselor" to make a good living for her family, including a young husband ruined from fighting the Huns in Germany.

Unfortunately, Daisy's chosen career is just a tad bit illegal as the police would see it more as fortune telling than psychological and emotional assistance. Not that any of her wealthy, satisfied (if a bit flighty) customers would ever dream of turning her in, but Daisy's wheelchair-bound husband's new best friend is none other than her own archenemy Detective Sam Rotondo, a cranky police officer who just misses catching her in the act of her questionable occupation with alarming frequency. But the brusque cop may be willing to overlook Daisy's profession as it appears that her countless social connections would make an excellent unofficial snoop for his cases.

Now if only this card-carrying choir member con-artist can just get past her morally superior ethics and agree!

What worked for me:

Sweet and lovable Daisy is just darling, if a bit garrulous! She's so sincere in her belief that she is helping people that you almost forget that she's truly a con-artist in the eyes of the law. The rest of the cast of characters are also very real and sympathetic. I easily could envision before and after "the Big War" images of Daisy's broken young husband Billy. (Shades of Lord Chatterley, anyone?)

Size-wise Daisy is a bit curvier than is fashionable for the era of boyish flappers, but she doesn't reflect on it very much. She is like many young women, however, in that she's a bit taken aback when she sees a larger, older woman wearing bright colors or getting down on her hands and knees to play with puppies. Life as a large woman is a foreign concept to Daisy for now, but she owns that it may become more familiar to her one day thanks to her fondness for her Aunt Vi's fine cooking.

What didn't work for me:  
  
I don't have a problem with it, but those who have strict genre preferences might. This series defies simple categorization having elements of both cozy mysteries and romance, but you could just as easily consider it light historical fiction with occasional dealings in darker matters like the treatment of homosexuals or the suffering of war veterans.

There were a couple of passages that were so information intensive that I felt like I was getting a history lesson, but aside from that it was smooth sailing.

Overall:

Charming and delightful, Daisy is sure to please readers of many genres, especially fans of novels set in the Roaring Twenties.

     If you liked the Daisy Gumm Majesty mystery series you might also enjoy the "Daisy Dalrymple" mystery series, the "Miss Marple" mystery series ,"The Edge of Town", "High on a Hill", "A Place Called Rainwater", "Lady Chatterley's Lover", or "Ulysses".

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Strong Spirits" is Strong Entertainment, February 10, 2003

By 

Jim Hull "Jim Hull" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strong Spirits (Paperback)

Alice Duncan has published a couple dozen novels, mainly Western
romances. With "Strong Spirits," she ventures out into the comic
romance arena to wonderful effect. The book stars Daisy Majesty, a
bright, somewhat cynical young lady who reads fortunes and holds
seances for a living, and who tells us -- in a chatty, charming, and
humorous voice -- of her misadventures in the world of the rich and
cunning in 1920s Pasadena. Her main client is the beleaguered Mrs.
Kincaid, whose wealth cannot shield her from many family problems,
chief among which is her penurious, cranky, mean husband. When Mr.
Kincaid disappears, along with a pile of bank notes, pandemonium
ensues, and Daisy must navigate skillfully between the demands of
Mrs. Kincaid and the suspicions of the attractive, albeit rather
grumpy, Detective Sam Rotondo. Meanwhile, Daisy has a war-invalid
husband smouldering at home, and her love for him is tempered by her
frustrations with his moods. How will she deal with all this? Much,
but not all, is resolved in this book, and Daisy is scheduled to
appear again in subsequent volumes.

Daisy's voice is often sardonic, sometimes hilarious. The author
achieves the breezy charm of someone telling a wonderful story off
the cuff, as if over coffee and biscuits, though sometimes Daisy
indulges her every thought to the reader's dismay. Still, she can
elicit guffaws. Here are a few samples (one or two of which bring to
mind Mark Twain):

"According to my mother, a sharp smack delivered to the rear portion
of the anatomy did wonders to clear up fuzzy thinking in the head
portion of the same body."

"I really hated it when people assumed I was a cheat and a humbug,
even though it was true."

"It would be terrible if I burst out laughing when I was supposed to
be summoning the dead."

"I glanced at the ceiling, hoping God would spot my face among the
millions he saw daily, and asked Him if He didn't think I had enough

burdens to bear already . . . "

"I was seriously beginning to consider purchasing a Hudson as my
next car. You know, when I got rich. Ha! Sorry. Sometimes I get
these silly fancies."

Having fun reading this book, however, is no silly fancy. "Strong
Spirits" is strong medicine for readers who've grown tired of the
same old romances. This one is quick, funny, and knowing. Here's
hoping Daisy Majesty sticks around to tell us many more of her
adventures.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Daisy Gumm Majesty is Pasadena's "Spiritualist", February 5, 2003

By 

Babs Ferret "a reading of romance fan" (Northern CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strong Spirits (Paperback)

After WWI Daisy finds she can make more money to support her ill husband and her whole family being a spiritualist--it's not fortunetelling though! She reads Tarot cards, has seances and works the Ouija board with her "rich clients".She gives the clients the news they want to hear that gives them hope. That thought also helps her justify her making of the "spirit" by the name of Rolly for this purpose!
Daisy finds herself in the middle of a police investigation by Detective Sam Rotondo due to the daughter and father of her rich client Mrs. Kincaid. The daughter was arrested in a speakeasy and the husband absconded with all the bearer bonds in his own bank. Sam looks into Daisy's life and finds Billy Majesty, her husband,who was in WWI gassed in France and now in a wheelchair most of the time and in great pain. Billy and Sam become friends along with Daisy's extended family but Daisy's reaction to Sam is very mixed but she is happy Billy has a friend. Solving the crime of Mr Kincaid takes Daisy getting involved in a round about way.
Ms Duncan has done a wonderful job creating all the characters. Daisy is great! I hope this is the start of a series. I'm eager to read more about Daisy, Billy & Sam.FINE SPIRITS will be released in July '03 I can hardly wait.