The Curse of Misty Wayfair

Author: Jamie Jo Wright
Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908. When clues lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a post-mortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected her personal quest would reawaken the legend of Misty Wayfair, a murdered woman who allegedly haunts the area and whose appearance portends death. 

A century later, Heidi Lane receives a troubling letter from her mother--who is battling dementia--compelling her to travel to Pleasant Valley for answers to her own questions of identity. When she catches sight of a ghostly woman who haunts the asylum ruins in the woods, the long-standing story of Misty Wayfair returns--and with it, Heidi's fear for her own life.

As two women across time seek answers about their identities and heritage, can they overcome the threat of the mysterious curse that has them inextricably intertwined?

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Reviewer: Laura J. Davis

Is it a ghost or her imagination? Is someone time-travelling? I had no idea what to expect in The Curse of Misty Wayfair by Jamie Jo Wright, which was great because the author had me hooked from the first page.

As the characters struggle to find out the truth of the strange goings on in the small town of Pleasant Valley, the reader is also left to wonder until the very end of the book. Wright did a superb job of keeping me in the dark until the last minute, making this a hard book to put down. However, there were so many rabbit trails that at times it was a hard book to follow. This would not have been an issue if I had hours to devote to reading this book in a single sitting. But unfortunately, my reading schedule is haphazard at best, making this book a confusing read if you couldn't remember where you last left off.

The characters are well developed, and the story is slightly spooky, filled with ghosts, insane asylums and forays into the past and future. The central theme is finding your identity (as each of our main characters - Heidi and Thea) try to do. What they find instead is the importance of who they are in Christ.

A great book with more than one surprising twist. I highly recommend it!

The book was provided courtesy of Baker Publishing and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.

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