A compelling debut, Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi, is one part Time and Again, for its evocative re-creation of the past, and one part The Da Vinci Code, for its ability to keep readers in suspense while immersing us in a world where the scientific meets the occult.
Set in 1922 Boston and Philadelphia, the novel concerns the misadventures of Martin Finch, a young Harvard graduate assistant whose career has been a bit inauspicious: hypnotizing girls at parties, losing the lab rats whose care and feeding were his sole responsibility, disappointing his green-grocer dad when he chose not to pursue a career in medicine.
So Finch is both delighted and amazed when he lands the plum job of graduate assistant to Dr. William McLaughlin, an eminent professor on the Harvard faculty. Finch's combination of talents - a passing interest in psychology, some degree of engineering skill and a healthy skepticism where religion is concerned - make him ideal for the job. Namely, the search for proof of the paranormal.
Together, they undertake a special assignment instigated by Scientific American magazine, which has launched a contest (according to the book jacket, the magazine actually did so) offering a $5,000 prize to "the first person who produces a psychic photograph under its test conditions" proving genuine contact with the spirit world. McLaughlin and Finch join a small team of hand-selected judges, creating "test conditions" that, time and again, cleverly debunk every comer. That is, until they meet Mina Crawley, the young wife of a prominent Philadelphia physician.
She comes to their attention bearing the stamp of approval of no less than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a well-known proponent of what was known in the day as "spiritualism." Once the team takes their quest for a winner to Philadelphia and the Crawleys, the lion's share of the novel is devoted to the question of whether Mina Crawley is the genuine article: a medium capable of contact with the dead.
As Finch works to uncover the truth behind Mina's power, he finds himself spellbound by her. In fact, the more he seeks to prove her a fraud, the more he falls for her. The mystery drives him and his passion, ultimately taking him on a whirlwind journey through the Prohibition-era City of Brotherly Love, a place where Houdini might pop up at any moment and where ventriloquists rub shoulders with con men. In fact, Finch investigates in a manner and a world worthy of the aforementioned Conan Doyle. Even the odd Malaysian butler who works for the Crawleys in their well-appointed townhouse, protecting them as much as he cares for them, is evocatively Holmesian.
Sparely written, Inamorata nonetheless delivers a richness of time, place, plot and character that is the perfect recipe for what is commonly termed a "page-turner." Like most such works, however, that means a reading experience that is as thrilling but as lasting as a roller-coaster ride. You won't be able to put this book down once you pick it up, but once you put it down, you may wish there had been a little more substance to the experience. Nonetheless, Gangemi may well prove to be a master of the kind of teasing suspense that makes the best kind of intellectual mystery.
Inamorata, to the very end, will keep you guessing and wondering. That, in itself, is a feat worthy of Houdini.
- Reviewer Mindi Dickstein lives in New Jersey and is currently writing lyrics for the Broadway-bound musical, "Little Women."
- "Inamorata," By Joseph Gangemi, Viking, $24.95, 319 pages.
