In Southern’s debut paranormal mystery, 25-year-old New Yorker Sam spends his days climbing the ranks in his job at a Wall Street firm—but he is shaken out of his lackadaisical lifestyle when his bosses send him to the Berkshire Mountains on a special project. There he becomes involved in the work of a not-for-profit foundation run by his Uncle Reuben, whom he hasn’t seen for 15 years—and right away he notices strange things tend to happen during their meetings. As his uncle sends him across the world to retrieve a precious box, Sam feels he has been “hijacked into a world of bizarre experiences, crazy and eccentric people, and even … what was seemingly the occult.”

The foundation, too, seems suspect—everyone Sam meets already seems to know a great deal about him. Readers will quickly notice that initially, Sam remains unbothered—though his lack of curiosity reads more like absent-mindedness rather than bravery. Sam’s love life also remains similarly static—he’s 25 but still nurtures a preteen infatuation with Reuben’s girlfriend, Portia, while not pursuing any romantic connections of his own. This lack of growth may frustrate some readers, while others will see it as an essential quality allowing Sam to overlook issues with his uncle that otherwise seem obvious.

While the narrator’s indulgent voice feels charmingly grandiose, by later chapters the verbosity starts to wear. Early on, Sam is described as someone for whom “young adulthood and being on one's own translates to a lifestyle unconcerned with an entry into ‘polite society,’” which sounds like a promising setup for growth. By the final chapters, though, Sam still seems to walk through his life with uncanny obliviousness, needing plot points explained to him like he is much younger. Still, that very same naivete allows Sam to embrace the strange experiences that drive the story and help him move forward with his life.

Takeaway: Paranormal family mystery forces young man into unexpected growth.

Great for fans of: Kate Morton’s The Distant Hours, Nicholas Shakespeare’s Inheritance.

Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: B
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A