Hits & Mrs.
Karen Stollznow
Author Bio
Karen Stollznow is the author of Hits & Mrs., God Bless America, Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic, and Haunting America. A co-host of the popular Monster Talk podcast, she has spent many years investigating psychics, ghosts, Bigfoot and other paranormal claims. A Doctor of Linguistics, she has taught at several universities in the United States and Australia, and was a Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Karen was born in Sydney, Australia, and she currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband Matthew and her son Blade.
Description
We all need a little magic in our lives but can we tell the difference between magic and lies?
Gil Godsend is the world’s greatest psychic medium.
Claudia Cox thinks he’s the world’s biggest fraud.
Once a professional skeptic, Claudia spent many years trying to expose Gil, but no one believed that the charismatic and handsome psychic could be a con artist. They would rather believe that Claudia has sour grapes because she and Gil were once lovers. Unable to reveal him to be a fraud, she moves on with her life and founds Suspicious Minds, a detective agency that catches cheating spouses. Years later, a few of Gil’s disgruntled female clients come out of the woodwork with shocking stories to tell. They beg for Claudia’s help. She convinces these grieving widows that Gil is using magic tricks to give the appearance that he’s a psychic medium and that he can’t really talk to the dead. They want revenge. With the help of famous mentalist Banachek, Claudia masterminds plans to catch Gil in the act of cheating but each sting fails dismally. Gil comes out smelling like roses while Claudia looks like a fool.
Will Claudia ever expose Gil as a charlatan? Maybe he really is psychic. Or is something more sinister going on behind the scenes?
Book excerpt
“Your husband is here with us now,” announced Gil Godsend in his deep, smooth voice. He opened his piercing blue eyes slowly and gazed across the table at his client. The curtains were drawn and the room was dark, but through the soft yellow light of the flickering candle he noticed tears welling up in the widow’s sad brown eyes. He also noticed that from this angle he had a view of her firm cleavage peeking through the plunging neckline of her silken wrap dress.
“Mrs. Thompson, I validate my psychic readings for my clients by sharing information I couldn’t possibly know if I wasn’t in communication with their deceased loved ones,” he said. He stared off into the distance as he tried to see across worlds. “I’m getting the name Al, Alan, or Alex…”
Kate Thompson’s heart rate sped up at the mention of her husband’s name.
“His name was Alex,” she confirmed.
“That’s right. Short for Alexander.”
“Yes. But I only ever called him by his full name when we were having sex,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. “He liked that,” she explained as a hot blush crept up her neck. Gil looked at her kindly, as if to say that this was a safe place and there was no need for embarrassment.
“Alex tells me he’s pleased to see you’re wearing the diamond earrings he gave you for your third wedding anniversary,” he said. In shock, Kate’s hands rose instinctively to touch the chandelier earrings that glimmered as they dangled from her ears. “He was also honored when you wore them to his funeral.”
She gasped. “How do you know all of these things?”
Gil grinned. “Aren’t you here to see the world’s best psychic medium?” he bragged with a charm that would have reeked of arrogance from anyone else. “I can hear and see your husband, Mrs. Thompson. He’s here in the room with us,” he said, waving his hand through the air. “We psychics don’t use crystal balls anymore.”
Gil didn’t use tarot cards, pendulums, or other psychic paraphernalia.
“Props are unnecessary bullshit. Real psychics don’t need gimmicks,” he liked to say. His house was filled with antiques and objets d’art rather than wind chimes, Himalayan salt lamps, and other new age knickknacks, with the exception of an enormous amethyst cluster. The magnificent natural crystal was proudly on display in the reading room where he received his clients. During a spiritual trip to Sri Lanka a Buddhist monk gave it to Gil as a gift and he cherished it. A jagged mass of vibrant violet crystals, it had an imposing phallic-shaped point thrusting out from the middle of the cluster. Gil found that his female clients always commented on his bulging purple crystal, and he saw Kate eyeing it at that moment. She looked a little embarrassed that she had been caught.