Synopses & Reviews
What happens when a pseudo psychic suddenly gets the real gift?
Marina Marks has been on the grift as a psychic since she was a child, forced into the business by a junkie mother who was always desperate for her next fix — and willing to use her solemn dark-haired daughter to peddle an extra buck. As an adult, Marina has earned a handsome living preying on the dreams and fears of her clients. She doesn't believe there is such a thing as psychic ability, but she does believe in intuition. Her gift is the ability to gain the trust of her clients and subtly raise her fees as they become more attached to her and her readings.
But when Marina moves her "intuitive counseling" business out of muggy, cloying Florida to the milder environs of southern California, her past follows her. As she takes on new clients — a trophy wife desperate to bear a child, a gay man involved with a closeted psychiatrist, and a philandering businessman who's smitten with her — a former client resurfaces in an eerie way. Suddenly, Marina is in love for the first time, but it is a romance whose roots lie deep in her past and threaten her efforts to reinvent herself.
As Marina's life gets more and more entangled with those of her clients, she makes a startling discovery: she suddenly has the actual ability to see the future. After predicting a murder exactly as it happens, she becomes the sole suspect. Now she's the desperate one — desperate to clear her name and to discover the meaning behind her visions.
Review
"Debra Ginsberg smoothly sketches captivatingly flawed characters, but the whodunit tends to take a backseat to who's-dating-who. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Set mostly amidst the wreckage of upper-class Southern California, The Grift...mixes mystery and romance with enough silliness to keep it from getting too serious." The Chicago Sun-Times
Synopsis
The acclaimed author of Blind Submission presents a sharp, psychologically tense novel about a fake psychic who is suddenly able to truly see the future. After predicting the murder of her lover exactly as it happens, she becomes the sole suspect and is desperate to clear her name.
About the Author
Debra Ginsberg is the author of the novel Blind Submission, as well as three memoirs: Waiting, Raising Blaze, and About My Sisters. She lives in San Diego.