The Lace Reader

By Brunonia Barry
(Harper Paperbacks, Paperback, 9780061624773, 416pp.)

Publication Date: July 28, 2009

Other Editions of This Title: (July 29, 2008), Large Print (July 29, 2008), Paperback (September 2007)

Categories: Mystery & Detective - Historical, Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths

Selected by Indie Booksellers for the Fall '09/Winter '10 Reading Group List

Brunonia Barry lives in Salem, Massachusetts, with her husband and their beloved golden retriever. She is at work on her second novel.

1. The author states that The Lace Reader is, at its core, about perception vs. reality. How does Rafferty's perception of Towner color his judgment of what she says and does? What about Rafferty's perception of Cal and his actions?

"The Lace Reader challenges the very notion of reality. A compelling, fast-action page turner. A terrific read!"
-Diane Stern, CBS Radio, Boston

"Barry excels at capturing the feel of smalltown life, and balances action with close looks at the characters' inner worlds. Her pacing and use of different perspectives show tremendous skill and will keep readers captivated all the way through."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"The Lace Reader is a page-turner, and the ending is almost as shocking as the film The Sixth Sense."
-Salem Gazette

"Past and present mysteries merge in a fast-moving narrative that builds through a numerous small dramas to a theatrical conclusion."
-Katherine Turman, Elle

"Barry's modern-day story of Towner Whitney, who has the psychic gift to read the future in lace patterns, is complex but darker in subject matter.... The novel's gripping and shocking conclusion is a testament to Barry's creativity."
-USA Today

"Surprise endings are tough to pull off--too often they aren't a surprise to anyone but the main character. To Barry's credit, she genuinely got me."
-Christian Science Monitor

"Barry does a fantastic job of sketching out her characters. The Whitney women, one and all, are intriguingly real."
-San Antonio Express-News

"Barry's depictions of her characters' altered states of consciousness are beautifully rendered. And "The Lace Reader" establishes Brunonia Barry as a force..."
-The Olympian

"A 'romance' in the Nathaniel Hawthorne sense of the word a dark tale of sin and guilt that blends the mundane and the fantastic, with a glimmer of redemptive hope at its core that all the Gothic trappings cannot obscure."
-Tulsa World

"Barry has written a meditative, lyric novel that in its discursive storytelling style full of digressions and expository sections on interesting facts will appeal to people who enjoy savoring a book one section at a time."
-Raleigh News & Observer

"Suspenseful and literary catnip-for-book-clubs...while it's surprisingly gritty for having "lace" in the title, we're calling this now as the beach read of '08."
-New York magazine

"An ambitious debut. Unusual and otherworldly, this is a blizzard of a story which manages to pull together its historical, supernatural and psychiatric elements. A survivor's tale of redemption."
-Kirkus Reviews

"Evocative, layered, smart, and astonishing, THE LACE READER is a fever dream of a novel that will haunt me for a long time to come. The Salem, Massachusetts that the Whitney women inhabit is a wild, dark place, and I loved every moment that I spent there."
-Joshilyn Jackson, author of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

"[For] fans of Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, Chris Bohjalian's The Double Bind."
-Booklist

"Barry weaves a suspenseful tale of witchcraft and dark mystery.Barry's depictions of time and place are marvelously descriptive."
-Roxanne Price, Elle

"Brunonia Barry has pulled off a major feat with her debut, The Lace Reader: It's a gorgeously written literary novel that's also a doozy of a thriller, capped with a jaw-dropping denouement that will leave even the most careful reader gasping."
-Dallas Morning News

"An engrossing modern-day twist on the classic Gothic novel..the story both astonishes and satisfies. In short, The Lace Reader is great entertainment."
-Tampa Tribune

"[A] richly imagined saga of passion, suspense, and magic."
-Time magazine

"What is real in The Lace Reader? What is not? To her credit Ms. Barry makes this story blithe and creepy in equal measure.... And there is much suspense invested in where all the lacunas in Towner's impressions will lead her...There are clues planted everywhere."
-New York Times

"A gorgeously written literary novel that's a doozy of a thriller, capped with a jaw-dropping denouement that will leave even the most careful reader gasping."
-Chicago Tribune

"With THE LACE READER, Brunonia Barry plunges us through the looking glass and beyond to a creepy and fascinating world. Prepare to meet strange, brave, bruised, electrically alive women there. Prepare to be riveted by their story and to live under its spell long after you've reached its astonishing end."
-Marisa de los Santos, author of Love Walked In and Belong to Me

"Lovely and captivating...The Lace Reader showcases Barry's understanding of human nature. A splendid debut novel."
-Kristin Hannah, author of Firefly Lane

"Barry's novel is that rare thing-a literary page-turner worthy for it's story and for its art."
-Tom Jenks, editor of Narrative magazine

"Finely rendered moments make this a novel to savor-a story as textured as it is imaginative... a story that readers will find as lovely as a swatch of handmade lace."
-Rocky Mountain News

"The Lace Reader unravels a magical, yet tragic family's tale...Barry has cleverly and delightfully set us up. With one fell swoop, she cuts the last thread, and the characters she has so carefully created unravel to reveal secrets we had not even begun to guess."
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A spine-tingler set in Salem...[with] an irresistible pull...The Lace Reader is tailor-made for a boisterous night at the book club."
-People (People Pick)

"Gripping.a marvelously bizarre cast of characters (living and dead) in a uniquely colorful town."
-Washington Post Book World

"What makes Brunonia Barry's compulsively readable debut even more interesting is the spice added by fillips both psychic and supernatural."
-Denver Post

"The Lace Reader casts an enthralling spell...As The Lace Reader unspools, we are drawn into a whirling vortex of deceit. Barry untangles these confusing strands of mystery with an artful precision."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune