Vivvy Bouchet would much rather spend her time gazing at the stars, in the remote Texas desert, with the most powerful telescope she can get her hands on. Unfortunately for Vivvy, an old cop friend believes that she has a psychic ability to find the dead and missing. He keeps calling her in to “consult” on cases like the notorious disappearance of a young Dallas-Fort Worth girl. Julia Haeberlin’s outstanding novel, Night Will Find You, keeps us guessing about Vivvy’s abilities. Is she really a psychic? Or is she just very good at observing and intuiting from details others miss?
Vivvy is a ball of anxiety when we meet her. Not only is a rather intense detective named Jesse Sharp testing her with a series of crime scene photos, Vivvy is also struggling with the knowledge that her recently deceased mother reached out to the incarcerated mother of a missing (presumed dead) child to announce that the child is not dead. Unfortunately, the letter Vivvy’s mother sent was heavily redacted by a prison guard; the name of who kidnapped the child was lost. There are a lot of complicated emotions whirling around in Vivvy’s head while she explains what she knows, what she doesn’t know, and how she could possibly know anything about the case at all—because Vivvy also believes that the child, who has been missing for more than ten years, isn’t dead.
Like all of the novels I’ve read by Haeberlin, it’s impossible to predict where the mystery is going to take us. Also like all of the novels I’ve read by Haeberlin, Night Will Find You absolutely knocked my socks off. I loved spending time with Vivvy as she followed her visions and instincts to find out what happened to the little girl. I empathized with her in the interstitial chapters where we see what it was little to grow up with a mother who firmly believed in psychic abilities, especially after things happened that made it look like Vivvy also had the touch. (I’m being cagey with my language because I’m still undecided about whether or not Vivvy has psychic abilities and want to leave the determination to other readers.) The chapters in which Vivvy spars with a local conspiracy theorist radio show host are a particular delight. And I loved the way that Vivvy spared with Jesse Sharp.
Night Will Find You utterly sucked me and didn’t turn me loose until I finished the last pages. I really can’t praise Julia Haeberlin’s highly original mysteries enough. Readers who want to read something new, something that challenges the bounds of the mystery genre, will have a great time with this book and anything else Haeberlin has written.