After Life

Rating:
Summary: ENJOYABLE AND REWARDING
Review: 'First I had to get his body into the boat.' Not the usual beginning for any sort of mystery novel, but this is not your run-of-the-mill mystery novel. Rhian Ellis' tale of a rather reluctant spiritualist, Naomi Ash, is set in rural upstate New York in a town founded by and populated by an amazing array of mediums, fortune tellers, seers, sages, fakirs and charlatans -- some of whom, doubtless, are sincere and possessed of real talent in their chosen field.

The story is skillfully told in both the present and in a series of well-constructed and smoothly integrated flashbacks. The author is talented enough that her techniques do not induce any degree of 'reader whiplash' -- and it's a relief to see this method used to such good advantage. It enhances the mystery -- allowing it to unfold slightly out of order keeps the reader in an additional degree of suspense.

One of the strongest aspects of Ms. Ellis' story is her central character, Naomi. She is believable, and whatever she may or may not have done -- no spoilers here -- we feel a great deal of empathy for her. She is not drawn as some hauntingly beautiful heroine, willowy, sexy and seductive, so perfect that she couldn't be real. She is very human, with a less-than-ideal self-image. Her life is filled with unfulfilled expectations, loneliness and little hope of improving her situation -- but there is also happiness, and the joy she finds in seemingly small things is very much alive to us.

The author also very ably brings some of the history of spiritualism in America into her novel -- not in a preachy way, as if she's trying to convince the reader of anything, but by way of information that gives her characters' beliefs a living past. I found this book to be very entertaining and well-written -- and refreshingly off the beaten path.

Rating:
Summary: ENJOYABLE AND REWARDING
Review: 'First I had to get his body into the boat.' Not the usual beginning for any sort of mystery novel, but this is not your run-of-the-mill mystery novel. Rhian Ellis' tale of a rather reluctant spiritualist, Naomi Ash, is set in rural upstate New York in a town founded by and populated by an amazing array of mediums, fortune tellers, seers, sages, fakirs and charlatans -- some of whom, doubtless, are sincere and possessed of real talent in their chosen field.

The story is skillfully told in both the present and in a series of well-constructed and smoothly integrated flashbacks. The author is talented enough that her techniques do not induce any degree of 'reader whiplash' -- and it's a relief to see this method used to such good advantage. It enhances the mystery -- allowing it to unfold slightly out of order keeps the reader in an additional degree of suspense.

One of the strongest aspects of Ms. Ellis' story is her central character, Naomi. She is believable, and whatever she may or may not have done -- no spoilers here -- we feel a great deal of empathy for her. She is not drawn as some hauntingly beautiful heroine, willowy, sexy and seductive, so perfect that she couldn't be real. She is very human, with a less-than-ideal self-image. Her life is filled with unfulfilled expectations, loneliness and little hope of improving her situation -- but there is also happiness, and the joy she finds in seemingly small things is very much alive to us.

The author also very ably brings some of the history of spiritualism in America into her novel -- not in a preachy way, as if she's trying to convince the reader of anything, but by way of information that gives her characters' beliefs a living past. I found this book to be very entertaining and well-written -- and refreshingly off the beaten path.

Rating:
Summary: Loved This Book!
Review: As a long-time avid reader, I have read many books but this is the first time I have felt compelled to comment. Ms. Ellis' book is totally captivating. Her main character, Naomi Ash, is so likeable that even though you know from the beginning "whodunit" you keep hoping that the "why" she did it will still enable her to live happily ever after. But as with real life, there isn't always a happily-ever-after for everyone...not during life; maybe not After Life. Ms. Ellis created a setting so picturesque that it made me want to find "Trainline", NY. Surprisingly, I found she did not draw the town from imagination, but from memory. It exists, still, in 2000 and is as amazing as she describes. The town in the novel and the town in Western NY are both places that once visited will never be forgotten.

Rating:
Summary: The slow unfolding of a life
Review: At the beginning of After Life there is a corpse to be disposed of: "First I had to get his body into the boat" runs the first sentence. The logistics of the body's disposal, the fear that it will be discovered once buried, the protagonist's dread of being found out, and the mystery of how Peter Morton came to be in this situation in the first place, wrongfully dead, form the tense backbone of Rhian Ellis's debut novel. But After Life is not so much a suspense novel--though it is suspenseful--as it is the slow unfolding of the life of the protagonist, Naomi Ash.

Naomi, a medium at the time of Peter's death, grew up as the daughter of a medium in New Orleans. There, ensconced in a dumbwaiter in her grandfather's house, Naomi would rap on the walls of her mother's séance room, doing her bit for the family business, or she would pretend to be the disembodied voice of some client's dead child. Later, mother and daughter moved north to a spiritualist colony in New York state, a town whose eccentric residents are, for the most part, psychics of one sort or another.

After Life is, in large part, a book about Naomi's relationship with her mother, both of them flawed, believable characters who are bound to one another by ineffably strong ties. It is also about how events, large and small--unkindnesses, deaths, thoughtlessness--can shatter one's happiness, and how survivors go on living nevertheless.

Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Rating:
Summary: Where's the movie?
Review: I am most likely to write a review when a book is so bad that I feel the need to warn potential readers from wasting their hard earned money or a trip to the library on it, but this case is very different. This novel tugged me into its web from the very first page. I found myself identifying to a frightening degree with the heroine, wondering what I'd do in the same situation, worrying about her and her loved ones well-being. A fascinating read that makes people simultaneously fascinating, dull and normal, no matter what their outcome in life.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the movie?
Review: I just love this book. It's so darn real that it sticks with you (I read it when it first came out and I still think about Naomi.) What a brilliant character and what wonderful atmosphere. I won't tell you the plot, because it's been told by others already, but this is story telling at its best.

Rating:
Summary: Off The Beaten Track Murder Mystery
Review: Rhian Ellis's "After Life" is a very well written, refreshingly new take on the classic murder mystery genre. Her protagonist, Naomi Ash, is a very believable, extremely flawed individual, whose saga I found most engrossing to read. Ellis deftly weaves in the history of spiritualism in America as a means through which she advances her unique plot. Those interested in reading a novel twist - no pun intended - on the murder mystery will find much to rejoice in Ellis's novel.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Mystery
Review: This is a murder mystery set in modern day New York State. The town is called Train Line, our main character is is Naomi Ash, and the whole book is an interesting view of a murderer's motives, reactions and spiritual quest.

What makes this book very interesting is the spiritual aspect. Train Line is a fictional rendition of the very famous Lily Dale, New York. For those of you not familiar with Lily Dale, this is an actual community of Spiritual Mediums living in upstate New York. Each summer thousands of spiritually motivated people flock to Lily Dale to consult the mediums there.

Ms. Ellis has done her homework, depicting Lily Dale very accurately as the town of Train Line in her book. The author states she spent a summer there, and did research on the community as well as Mediums and the aspect of Medium Spirituality. I think Ms. Ellis has been able to depict the town of Train Line as a perfect shadow to Lily Dale.

The murderer is known to the reader in this book, and it makes it interesting to follow the personal crisis, the spiritual conflicts, philosophical debates and ultimately the final conclusions that the murderer has to face. The murderer is realistic in her constant struggle with the act that she has committed and the spirituality she represents.

Mix this with the almost Victorian flavor of the medium community of Train Line that still exists today in Lily Dale, and this book is a wonderful, suspenseful piece of fiction that I found I had to finish to see what happens in the end.

For an enjoyable, thought provoking book that mixes a good who-done-it with a spiritual flavor, pick up this book. A bit off the beaten path, the one less traveled, but for most of us a path we often look for because we enjoy the different.

Rating:
Summary: Simply superb
Review: Train Line, New York is a town divided into two co-existing groups. The long-term residents descend from generations of mediums and spiritualists. The more recent arrivals are New Age enthusiasts. Naomi Ash is sort of an in-betweener. Her mother, medium Madame Galina Ash fled New Orleans about two decades ago to the delight of the local police force. She resettles in Train Line amidst a community of her peers. Naomi knows the business of the awakening the dead from first hand experience with her mother.

Naomi is worried that the local police will soon resurrect a certain dead person. Ten years ago, Naomi murdered and buried her boy friend, Peter Morton. His remains have just been uncovered and without the need of a crystal ball, all evidence points towards Naomi.

AFTER LIFE is a superb psychological thriller that deftly alternates between the present and what occurred ten years ago. Naomi is a brilliant character whose thoughts hook the reader into deep philosophical thinking as to what are really life and death. The support cast, including the dead Peter, provides layers of background that adds understanding of Naomi. Using poetic imagery, Rhian Ellis debuts with a great tale that indicates she will enjoy a successful life as an author long after readers devour this book.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing and thought provoking
Review: When seeing mediocre comedians at comedy clubs, the first thought that comes to mind is that I can stand on a stage and do that too. Now I've finally read a book that makes me want to crank up the old IBM Selective and write a yarn that I'm sure would be better than this drivel. I must be more careful in the future when relying on Amazon reviews, which is how I chose "After Life". This book was simply straight storytelling, with no thought-provoking prose at all (or very little, at best). It was a complete waste of time to read, but I could never decide where to close the book for good and flight it from my window.