Kaleidoscope (Madame Karitska)

Next to the incomparable Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilmans best-loved character is the mysterious Madame Karitska, who is blessed with a powerful gift of clairvoyance that attracts to her a stream of men and women craving help with their misfortunes, desperate to know what the future holds. . . .

When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victims instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitskaas wise as she is lovelychooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attach case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows its time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden.

A nine-year-old accused of murder, a man dying a slow death by witchcraft for the hunted and the haunted, Madame Karitskas shabby downtown apartment becomes a haven, where brilliant patterns of violence, greed, passion, and strange obsessions mix and disintegrate with stunning, kaleidoscopic beauty.

Once again Dorothy Gilman exercises her own uncanny power to render readers spellbound.


From the Hardcover edition.