Playing With Fire

by Kathleen Karr

A highly spirited mystery

Burdened by her uncanny ability to see people's auras, Greer is happy to leave overcrowded New York City, where her mother, Madame Camille, earns a meager living as a fortune-teller, to summer at a mansion on Long Island. There Madame Camille conducts séances with Greer's help -- under the watchful, unscrupulous eye of Drake Morley, her mother's latest male "friend." All along, Greer suspects that Drake wants to make a charlatan out of her fey mother. What's more, she senses something horrible about the man's past. And when she unwittingly starts conjuring up actual spirits, things quickly reveal themselves to be far more dangerous than she expected.

Inspired by the 1920s craze for spiritualism, Playing with Fire is the heartfelt story of a strong girl who refuses to sacrifice her future, and learns to accept herself and her family.

185 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2001

About the author

Kathleen Karr was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a chicken farm in Dorothy, New Jersey. After escaping to college, she worked in the film industry, and also taught in high school and college. She seriously began writing fiction on a dare from her husband. After honing her skills in women’s fiction, her children asked her to write a book for them, (It Ain’t Always Easy, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990), and she discovered she loved writing for young readers.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not my favorite book that we've done for the book club, but I still enjoyed it. I learn something from everything I read. I was intrigued by the strength of the main character and enjoyed her "in your face" attitude. The psychic story line was a little weird but not too distracting.

[Kimberley Jessica Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good however..

Do not was a really good book but I think the characters could have been more in-depth and less simple. There was no bad boy story line to this. Sisyphus story was quite short and was more of a short story than a novel.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A girl reluctantly helps her mother fake seances to earn money on Long Island in the 1920s.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Secret baby?????

Where’s the secret baby? But other wise I enjoyed it. I liked the plot but no secret baby ruined it for me

[Gina Deters · Rating 1 out of 5]

No depth to story line

[Kerry Richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This says it's a billionaire secret baby romance but there was no secret baby. It was a very weak story and it was not a good book in my opinion.