From the Bookshelf of Tyler Public Library…

[close] Eurydice (Edie) works as a “body” for the Elysian Society, an establishment, set in the near future, which allows the grief stricken to connect with deceased loved ones. Edie has worked for the Elysian Society for five years and holds the record for longest employment. Bodies don’t seem to last long at the Elysian Society, but Edie’s uncanny success relies on her ability to completely vacate her body, detach and allow the deceased to fully possess her. All the bodies use a pill, called a lotus, to facilitate this transfer, but it is not without risk: enter handsome widower Patrick Braddock who has lost Sylvia, his young, beautiful wife in a swimming accident. Edie finds herself drawn to Patrick and Sylvia doesn’t exactly disappear when the effects of the lotus wear off…”she still might stay inside me, metastasizing through my organs until nobody can tell us apart, or she might leave. A parasite deserting a starving host…”

Murphy has an intriguing premise for her novel and I had a hard time putting ‘The Possessions’ down. Deep, dark secrets are slowing revealed as Edie’s obsession with the seemingly perfect couple cause her to circumvent her own careful rules and those of the Elysian Society. Recommended for readers of psychological fiction. (MV)