The Grift

A psychic's life is turned upside down when she suddenly acquires real fortune-telling powers.

What happens when a pseudo psychic suddenly gets the real gift?

Marina Marks has been on the grift as a psychic since she was a child, forced into the business by a junkie mother willing to use her solemn dark-haired daughter to peddle an extra buck. As an adult, Marina has earned a handsome living preying on the dreams and fears of her clients. She doesn't believe there is such a thing as psychic ability, but she does believe in intuition. Her gift is the ability to gain the trust of her clients and subtly raise her fees as they become more attached to her and her readings.

But when Marina moves her "intuitive counselling" business out of the muggy, cloying Florida to the milder enviros of southern California, her past follows her. As she takes on new clients - a trophy wife desperate to bear a child, a gay man involved with a closeted psychiatrist, and a philandering businessman who's smitten with her - a former client resurfaces in an eerie way.

Suddenly, Marina is in love for the first time, but it is a romance whose roots lie deep in her past and threaten her efforts to reinvent herself.

As Marina's life gets more and more entangled with those of her clients, she makes a startling discovery: she suddenly has the actual ability to see the future. After predicting a murder exactly as it happens, she becomes the sole suspect. Now she's the desperate one - desperate to clear her name and to discover the meaning behind her visions.

About Debra Ginsberg

Debra Ginsberg is the author of the memoirs Waiting , Raising Blaze , About My Sisters and the fiction bestseller, Blind Submission . She lives in Southern California.

The Grift
Allen & Unwin
Debra Ginsberg
ISBN: 9781741755947
RRP: $23.95


Reviews:

[A] "novel of slow-burn spookiness...For anyone who seeks an escape between two covers in these last few weeks of summer..."The Grift" is a gift with no strings attached, no dark outcome to dread, a satisfyingly voyeuristic vision of a mysterious stranger's supernaturally charged fortunes." The New York Times

"Usually when Marina Marks, who's made a career of faking psychic powers, looks into the future, all she can see is cash. But then she starts receiving eerily accurate visions in this rollicking novel of twists and turns. We predict you'll love it!" -Redbook

"Memoirist and novelist Ginsberg mixes supernatural and film noir elements in this mystery about a woman whose living as a psychic falls apart when her psychic powers become too real .... Marina is a richly drawn, deeply involving heroine ...." -Kirkus

"Ginsberg's second novel is an entertaining whodunit and an invigorating tale about a damaged young storefront psychic who learns how to live truthfully....Ginsberg thoroughly exploits her clever premise, and Marina's handling of her troubles-romantic, professional, mystical-ring true through to the redemptive end." -Publisher's Weekly

"Ginsberg...has created an interesting cast of characters to explore a world that is embraced by some and viewed by many with deep skepticism. The story flows along, and readers looking for a different twist on the psychological novel will enjoy the trip." -Library Journal

"The Grift is a gift-a fresh voice and story, with a winning heroine. Another triumph for Debra Ginsberg, who clearly has many gifts of her own." -Laura Lippman, author of What the Dead Know and Another Thing to Fall

"Debra Ginsberg has done it again in this compulsively readable, suspenseful, and very this-worldly tale of a psychic and her desperate clientele." -Janet Fitch, author of Paint it Black and White Oleander