AFTER LIFE

Rhian Ellis has created a town of registered mediums and spiritualists, a frayed-at-the-edges town called Train Line. Based on the real-life town of Lily Dale in upstate New York, the story centers on Naomi Ash, a 31-year-old medium, who is the daughter and granddaughter of mediums. She snags us with her first line, "First, I had to get his body into the boat." Narrator Shannon McManus’s voice is youthful, light, and airy. Her reading is intelligent and serviceable but lacks the subtlety to fully capture Ellis’s multilayered psychological thriller. With more than a mystery at its heart, the novel, filled with credible characters and mystical messages, weaves details of Naomi’s life with the question of whether spiritualism is fact or fraud. A fascinating, impeccably written tale. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]