Review
Anyone who has read Erica Wright’s works before probably know what to expect. But I found The Museum of Unusual Occurrence to be more enjoyable than her first book featured on the Cantina Book Club.
See my book review for Hollowed Bones by Erica Wright.
I knew I would get an eerie and mysterious vibe from the author’s style and this book delivered. We meet a young woman and her teenage sister on their own after their father passed and their mother ran off for who knows what. We’ve got orphans who also inherited a gothic version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. So when a dead body is found in one of the display cases, set in a ritualistic fashion, no trail is too farfetched.
The story is well-paced with a healthy amount of misdirection. I don’t usually catch on to things and I’m not mad about it. And having already read the author’s work, I had expected it to a certain level. That being said, I was wonderfully entertained with not knowing the whodunnit or why. Not to mention that the main character’s cynicism made me chuckle. While at times the pace was too slow and some plot points didn’t seem to fit in, The Museum of Unusual Occurrence is a worthy title to consider.
Erica Wright returns to the Cantina Book Club Podcast to catch up on her writing journey and plans for the next one. Keep an ear out for the episode and preorder The Museum of Unusual Occurrence, available on April 7.
Book
Welcome to the Museum of Unusual Occurrence―a place full of strange exhibits and even stranger murders. The first in the new Psychic City mystery series by talented author Erica Wright.
“Every small town thinks it’s special―That might be true, but this one actually is.”
Rational and cynical Aly Orlean’s life in her psychic hometown of Wyndale, Florida couldn’t be more hectic. It’s all about running her business, raising a teenage sister, sending out holiday greetings―and her new task: finding a killer.
For her Museum of Unusual Occurrence not only houses odd curiosities but now has a brand-new display: The body of Rose Dempsey, a local twenty-year-old, set up in one of the exhibits as if she has been ritually sacrificed.
With the police clueless, Aly is worried that this is a vicious warning for her and her solitary way of life. Fearing for her sister Merope’s well-being, she’s determined to find out why the killer murdered Rose and how her body was placed in Aly’s museum . . . But might the killer be someone hiding in plain sight?
Karen Russell’s SWAMPLANDIA! meets Ruth Ware’s THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY in this “suspenseful mystery populated with winning characters” (Booklist on Famous in Cedarville).
