The Nature of Rare Things

When paranormal investigator and Cambridge lecturer Dr. Nathaniel Gye is commissioned at a séance to find a dead man's killer, he dismisses the incident as a clumsy fraud by a fake medium. But when Nathaniel's own wife disappears in Italy, an eventuality foretold by the same unquiet spirit, he is forced to look for connections between her predicament and the violent death of a man she never knew.In this dark and fast-paced mystery, the urgent search for answers takes Nathaniel far from his quiet university existence and into a labyrinth of hazardous twists and turns involving a stolen Renaissance painting and the love life of poets Robert and Elizabeth Browning.

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Dr. Nathaniel Gye, a lecturer in parapsychology at Cambridge, is a highly respected academic who helps police investigate the earthly crimes of theft and murder. Bob Gomer, a former employee of the college who is now a security guard accused of stealing a valuable Renaissance painting, commits suicide. Out of sympathy for Bob's widow, a skeptical Nat attends a seance where a medium claims to be channeling Bob. "Bob" tells Nat that he neither stole the painting nor committed suicide--and that Nat's wife, Kathryn, should by no means go to Italy. Unfortunately, Kathryn is already en route to attend a seminar on the Brownings, and Nat can't get hold of her. Panic outweighs doubts about the medium, and he rushes to Italy to find Kathryn and investigate the missing painting. The plot turns out to be a bit simplistic, but it is enlivened by colorful scenes of Florence and nice interaction between the characters--not to mention the fact that down-to-earth Nat makes an out-of-this-world protagonist. Jenny McLarinCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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