Preview of a Review: The Lace Reader

I wouldn't normally do this, but I'm so excited that The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry was released today. It's been getting tons of buzz, and I love the story behind the story.

From Publishers Weekly:

When Brunonia Barry’s debut The Lace Reader was self-published last year, a starred PW review and a bookseller buzz campaign helped it pop in the market--and land a $2 million republication deal with Morrow.

My first job in book publishing was as the editorial assistant to the editorial director of Pocket Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster). While I was there, she signed a contract with now-bestselling author Vince Flynn, who had self-published his first novel, Term Limits, in the St. Paul-Minneapolis area. Pocket re-published it, and he's since become a wildly successful author. So, I have a soft spot for self-published writers.

Here's the premise of The Lace Reader, courtesy of PW:

Towner Whitney, a dazed young woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers, has survived numerous traumas and returned to her hometown of Salem, Mass., to recover. Any tranquility in her life is short-lived when her beloved great-aunt Eva drowns under circumstances suggesting foul play. Towner's suspicions are taken with a grain of salt given her history of hallucinatory visions and self-harm. The mystery enmeshes local cop John Rafferty, who had left the pressures of big city police work for a quieter life in Salem and now finds himself falling for the enigmatic Towner as he mourns Eva and delves into the history of the eccentric Whitney clan.

I've got this in my hands, and as soon as I finish How Far Is the Ocean From Here, I'm on it. Review to follow...