A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
Tina Wainscott
St Martin's Paperbacks
March 2000
ISBN# 0-312-97403-5
{Click
here to buy this book}
In Tina Wainscott's latest novel, "A
Trick of the Light", a near death experience puts
heroine Chloe on the job of tracking a
missing boy. But her ties to the shunned
community of Lilithdale have people in the outside community
turning away from her. Her persistence wins over the boys father,
Dylan, when a crazy stunt brings the focus of missing children
to the forefront of this story.
Chloe's parents were killed when she was young,
or so she was told, and was sent to live with her eccentric
aunts in the small community of Lilithdale, a small town known
for the great numbers of psychics, fortune tellers and feminists.
Chloe is "disconnected" but lives in peace with
her friends and family as an accountant. While crossing the
street one afternoon she's struck by a car and killed. While
on the other side Wanda, the woman who hit Chloe, also dead
from careening into a wall, meets Chloe and tells her that
she had been leaving her husband and had hidden her son from
him. She begs Chloe to find the boy and take him back to his
father but before Chloe can find out where the boy is hidden
Dylan suddenly breathes life back into her while performing
CPR. From the first look, Chloe is taken by Dylan, and when
she discovers that he is the boy's father she sets out to
try to help him find his boy. Falling in love with him is
the last thing she has in mind. She's plain, unattractive,
and worst of all, she's associated with Lilithdale's anti-men
community and this gorgeous man would hardly find her approachable.
Dylan decided that it was about time he spent
more time with his son and decides to go home early from work.
When he arrives home he discovers that his wife, Wanda, is
up to some thing. She tries to send him back to work then
rushes to her waiting car and peels out of the driveway. Struck
with curiosity he follows. What follows horrifies Dylan. While
following Wanda she begins to panic and races down street
after street until a tragic accident leaves her dead behind
the wheel. He performs CPR on the woman on the street when
he feels a slight pulse and is shocked when she wakes with
the words on her breath, "Where's Teddy?" Could
it be a coincidence? When the woman is released from the hospital
he's surprised that she contacts him and tells him that Wanda
sent her from "the other side" to help him find
his son. Her ties with Lilithdale pushes her away but there's
something intriguing about her and at first he listens, but
when he finds himself becoming attracted to her he pushes
her away and refuses to listen to any of her crazy stories.
When she pulls a crazy stunt, bringing child abduction to
the forefront of community concern, he can't help but realize
that his heart was never in his marriage to Wanda and that
this slightly left of center woman, Chloe, could very well
be the one meant for him.
I have mixed feelings over "A Trick of the
Light". While on one side I find the story to be quite
charming and mostly original, I can't help but feel that the
whole "crazy" theme of the book was played out in
the first few pages. Wanda kidnaps her own son because the voices
told her to do it. She's spent time in an asylum and is leaving
before Dylan can discover that she's slowly loosing it again.
As well, there is lunacy in both Chloe's and Dylan's backgrounds
which is supposed to counterbalance everything between them.
I found the community of Lilithdale quite charming though with
it's quirky residents and as the story progressed I came to
understand some of the reasons behind all the crazy characters.
Settings in the story are well written and characters seem well
developed, save the crazy aspects. I found this book to be a
real page-turner though with the suspense of Chloe's aunt's
vision and the finds they make along the way. Excellent ending
and very well written. I'll certainly recommend this story to
anyone looking for something different but with the note included
that once the overuse of insanity can be overlooked the book
is actually quite intriguing.
