“"May I come to you?"
According to Spring Green author Sara Rath, this is the question that a medium should ask of her subject before delivering a spirit message. Rath, whose first book Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages is also set in Wisconsin, has penned a novel that cannot decide if it is spooky, romantic or slapstick. By trying to be all three, it fails to be any of them.
Elenora Grendon, a divorced writer whose children and grandchildren live in far-flung locations, decides to write a magazine article about the Wocanaga Spiritualist Camp. Wisconsin has a long history of involvement in spiritualism, and the fictional camp is based on a real one in the Baraboo area. At any rate, skeptical "Nell" discovers that she has a talent for channeling, and a pesky spirit of an old-time radio actress causes havoc in her life. There is a back story from Elenora's girlhood involving a couple unsavory incidents, a subplot about a possible murder of a childhood friend, and some very silly romance with a jazz pianist. Overall I found the story to be unconvincing and the characters nobody I wanted to spend time with. The only thing that kept me reading was the author's descriptions of the UW Madison campus, State Historical Society, and western Wisconsin's beautiful scenery.
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sthurner wrote this review Thursday, October 15 2009.
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