The Curse of Misty Wayfair ~ Review

The Curse of Misty Wayfair
By Jaime Jo Wright

If you love a book that has two different threads of time that are woven together by a common factor you will love The Curse of Misty Wayfair. The early 1900s and present-day Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, have one thing in common Misty Wayfair. Who or what is Misty Wayfair you ask? It is from her murder in 1851 that the legends that have haunted Pleasant Valley ever since have come from.

When Thea (Dorothea) Reed photographer of memento mori, also known as a mourning portrait, comes to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908 she is looking for clues to her past. A past that she has been lead to believe has roots there. Her only clues - scant memories of her mother and a letter detailing what little was known of her past. But Pleasant Valley seems anything but pleasant with secrets and rumors of a haunting by a woman whose appearance seems to foretell death. And the deaths all seem to be focused upon the Coyle family whom suspicion and rumor swirl in connection to the tale of Misty Wayfair. Thea wants to find the truth of who she is but most seem determined to discourage her attempts and she is warned away from the remaining Coyles, Rose and Simeon. But Thea is drawn to them in their grief and her curiosity keeps her from heeding the well-intentioned advice of the local residents or that of her late employer.

In present-day Pleasant Valley, Heidi Lane is making a visit to the family she has avoided for the last several years. Feeling that she never quite fit in and that she was never good enough for them she went away to college and has been running from her demons ever since. But a letter from her mentally failing mother has her returning to a home she never knew. A happy reunion is not about to happen anytime soon and when Heidi starts experiencing events that have her questioning just what is going on. And worse it seems as if someone is determined to push her mentally over the edge. And the old photograph that she discovered marked Misty Wayfair is seemingly linked to whatever is occurring and Heidi wants answers. But getting answers from her family may be a tad difficult and she's managed to annoy some of the local residents almost immediately, whoops.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair is Contemporary Gothic Fiction at its best. I really liked how the rumors about Misty Wayfair are engaged with by the various characters. Do you believe the souls of the deceased are trapped here forced to wander or did you believe that there is something beyond this that we know and see an afterlife that is not a wandering torment just beyond our physical life? Thea's upbringing was one that believed in spiritual hauntings. Heidi's upbringing was one as the youngest surprise child of a pastor and she chafed at the rules and don't that she felt stifled her. These two women with more than a century dividing them are linked by a place that is about to define what their futures will be but only if they can determine the truth of who they are.

Get ready for some suspense that will keep you reading, as you promise yourself just one more chapter until you reach the conclusion which for both story-threads has some unexpected results. Jaime Jo Wright has again worked wonders with her wordcraft and the winner in this is the reader who picks up this newest work. 

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher with no expectation but that I offer my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.



About the Book:
Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to turn-of-the-century Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin. When the clues she finds lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a postmortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected her personal quest would reawaken the legend of Misty Wayfair, a murdered woman who allegedly haunts the area and whose appearance portends death. 

A century later, Heidi Lane receives a troubling letter from her mother--who is battling dementia--compelling her to travel to Pleasant Valley for answers to her own questions of identity. When she catches sight of a ghostly woman haunting the asylum ruins in the woods, the long-standing story of Misty Wayfair returns--and with it, Heidi's fear for her own life.
As two women across time seek answers about their identities and heritage, they must overcome the threat of the mysterious curse that has them inextricably intertwined.