A Sixth Sense.
Or something else….
In 1964, four remarkable young women at a prestigious university became the subjects of parapsychology experiments by a visionary scientist. On the cusp of a historic breakthrough, the women mysteriously vanished and the program was erased from history.
Decades later, Riley Bell, newly divorced and desperate for a fresh start, accepts a caretaker job for an elderly widow named Betty. Riley steps into a home that is frozen in another era - no microwave, television, or cell phones, and Betty has never heard of the internet.
Why has Betty lived in such profound isolation for so many years, and why does she need Riley now? As the story unfolds across two timelines - Betty’s 1960s era of 5 o’clock martinis and high-stakes experiments, and Riley’s quest to uncover the truth about the missing women - old secrets rise to the surface. And the only way to survive is to confront the mystery that has lingered for sixty years. (Pub Date: Aug 4 2026)Riley has found a live-in job taking care of elderly Betty, whose house seems to have frozen in the 60s. But Betty isn't just looking for a caretaker, but also for Riley's help to find her friends from college and face what happened all those years before.
It's not that this is a perfect read. I'd rate it a 3.5, but it does deserve to be rounded up.
The book is told in two different timelines: Riley's in the present day, and Betty's and her friends' in the 60s, when the four young women took part in experiments at a university to evaluate their psychic powers. Even though their stories are fictional, tests like these were actually happening back then, and I've read other fiction that touches on them too. As soon as I understood what young Betty was getting into, I knew we were in for some horror. I just didn't think it would get so realistically bad. Because what was scariest of all was how this could have really happened, and maybe even did.
This story isn't about superpowers, though, but about how thwarted a human being can turn out to be.
I haven't read many good books this year, so it's not like this one had much competition, but I could just as well call it one of the best I've read so far.
So why is it just a 3.5? I think the build-up was far superior to the rest. It doesn't derail too badly, but it deserved better explanations, as the events weren't as neatly tied up. As a result, it's hard to believe everything would resolve so neatly, given everything Betty goes through on her way to where we find her at the start of the book. The present-day mystery suffers from the same looseness, so it needed more shaping and polishing. And after everything that came before, the ending wraps up a little too clean. It's satisfying, but shallow, like it's really just a happy-ending story. In the end, this book had the makings of a 5-star read; it just needed a stronger follow-through to get there. Even so, it's still a great read, and one I'd recommend.
This was my second book by this author, and I hadn't been very pleased by the first, so I'm glad I gave her a second chance, because now she's on my list of releases to look forward to.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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