The cards looked like The Lord of the Rings as illustrated by Salvador Dalí. Most of them packed in enough kooky symbolism for a dozen Lady Gaga videos. [p. 87]
Alanis McLachlan, a telemarketeer, is surprised to learn that her estranged mother has bequeathed her a New Age shop and tarot-reading business -- the White Magic Five and Dime -- in the small town of Berdache, Arizona. Her mother, who went by a variety of names, was an accomplished con artist, and Alanis (not her real name), who grew up playing key roles in her mother's scams, is pretty sure the tarot-reading was just another ruse. But someone murdered her mother, and she's increasingly sure that it wasn't a burglary gone wrong. She persuades charming detective Josh Logan to help her investigate three people with grievances against her mother -- a gullible woman who's paid through the nose for relationship advice, a family whose haunted jewellery has gone missing, and an elderly gentleman who claims he was her mother's fiance. Each has a tale to tell, and there are also plenty of flashbacks to Alanis' childhood: it quickly becomes obvious that Alanis' mother had a plethora of enemies, and deserved them all. Does her teenaged apprentice, Clarice, who's living in the apartment above the store, hold the key to the murder?
I picked this from the Kindle Unlimited list on a whim, and enjoyed it more than I'd expected. Alanis is a smart, cynical and extremely perceptive narrator, which would not endear her to me if that was all she was. There's a vulnerable child in there, though, and a woman who is increasingly drawn to the tarot and its symbolism, despite initially writing it off as 'hogwash'.
I think this is the only novel I've ever read which features a tarot reading at gunpoint. Kudos!
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