Please See Us

Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen  352 pages

Atlantic City in the summer should mean loads of happy tourists on the boardwalks and in the casinos. However, Atlantic City isn't the place it once was and now holds some devastating secrets, including two bodies laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel.

Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, is trying to make a living in spite of the disturbing visions that have started to plague her. When she meets Lily, a girl working at a casino spa and who is caught in her own personal tragedy, Clara thinks Lily can help her make sense of her visions. However, Lily is struggling with her own issues and it's not clear if together, Clara and Lily can not only piece together what Clara's visions are about, but also save another girl from joining the other victims in the marsh.

This is a brooding, eerie book where you have the pace of a psychological thriller combined with the odd paranormal element of Clara's visions. Is she really having visions or is she trying to scam Lily? Does Lily know more than she is letting on?  There is a nice added touch here in that you get perspectives from some of the women who have ended up as bodies in the marsh, and along with the sinister quality of Atlantic City as a setting, the story has an interesting sense to it.

Good for readers who like Chloe Benjamin and novels with a strong sense of unease running through the storyline.