Book Review: "Please See Us" by Caitlin Mullen
“Please See Us” by Caitlin Mullen
Synopsis: Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they're there.
Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl--so long as their efforts don't attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?
Evocative, eerie, and compelling, Please See Us is a fast-paced psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: From the opening chapter in the voices of the women murdered by the serial killer at the center of the book, I knew this to be loosely based on the Long Island Serial Killer, a particularly brutal and prolific criminal. Drawn to those at the margins of society, women engaged in sex work and drug use, he has gone uncaptured for years.
The book alternates voices between women affected by the killer, most sex workers, all down on their luck in Atlantic City (which is portrayed in all its gritty, downtrodden glory). Mullen takes great care to humanize these women without portraying them as saintly, rather as forced into their poor choices by financial circumstances, drug problems, or mental illness.
The central characters, Clara and Lily, a teenage fortune teller and a former prominent gallerist, are an unlikely pair. Lily is drinking herself numb every night to recover from a nasty breakup while working a dead-end job in a spa, and Clara lives with her aunt, barely scraping by with their dingy storefront. When Clara, strong armed into sex work by her aunt, realizes a killer is in their midst, the two team up to save themselves and others like them.
The book is quick and extremely suspenseful, and takes sensitivity with the lives of victims, a sadly rare quality in thrillers. It meets at the intersection of literary fiction and pulpier thrillers, and is a book I won’t soon forget.
TL;DR: This Edgar-award nominee is a smart and suspenseful debut that doesn’t shy away from the brutality of violence against women.
If you liked this; try:
“These Women” by Ivy Pochoda (Bookshop | Kindle)
“The Less Dead” by Denise Mina (Bookshop | Kindle) my review here
“Nothing Can Hurt You” by Nicola Maye Goldberg (Bookshop | Kindle) my review here
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