Review: Clarity by Kim Harrington

 

  

It was the gorgeous cover that caught my eyes with Clarity. It's stunning! It really captures the spirit of the character and the location in this novel. Clarity "Clare" Fern and Periwinkle "Perry" ( OMG! such a funny name for a cute boy!)  her brother along with their mother are gifted. Clare is a Psychic that gets impression from the objects she touches. Perry is a medium who can communicate with the dead and their mother is Telepathic.

 

What I love most about Clarity is the easy way she introduces us to the Fern family and to Eastport the tourist town on Cape Cod where they live.

 

To the other townies the Fern's are freaks. Constantly teased Clare has created a sarcastic nonchalant veneer that hides the deep sensitivity and pain in her heart since she has broken up with the Mayor's son Justin.

 

Beginning with an intriguing opening scene where Clare is staring down the barrel of a gun. We then backtrack to find out how she became embroiled in this dangerous past time. It begins with the murder of a young tourist named Veronica. Clare is asked to use her abilities to secretly investigate with Justin and Gabriel the teenage son of the islands newest detective. It's an uncomfortable alliance. Clare still harbors resentment towards Justin's infidelity in their previous relationship and she is both attracted and frustrated by Gabriel and his disbelief in her powers.

 

Clare balances these difficult feelings along with her panicked  need to find the killer and prevent suspicion from her brother who is more involved with the murdered girl than anyone suspects.

  

At its heart this is a mystery story and Harrington deftly inserts clues and casts suspicions on various characters. i had to really resist the urge to peek and see who the killer was( I have such a bad habit of doing that :0) I was kept guessing to the very end and really enjoyed the resolution. A very promising debut! I look forward to the next book in the series.