Spirit and Dust

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Spirit and Dust
by Rosemary Clement-Moore
New York: Delacorte Press
2013
387 pages

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I used to watch the television series Medium and have in fact been watching it again on Netflix. When I read the blurb about this book, I thought immediately of that program. This is a teen version of that basic premise, the psychic who helps law enforcement solve crimes. It is also book two, following Texas Gothic, about the Goodnight Clan. I didn't know this when I started reading, but Spirit and Dust is a good stand-alone book, so it won't matter so much if you read this one first, as I did.

Daisy Goodnight is a very modern teenager in many ways. She has dyed red hair, likes Goth clothing, and has an "kick-ass" attitude. But she is also very connected with the past. She is from a long family line of psychics who can talk to spirits, or remnants. These are not the souls of the dearly departed, but leftover fragments of the dead, associated with places they had been or where they died, or things they had touched. Daisy is asked by FBI Agent Taylor to assist with the murder of the driver of a kidnapped teen. Another wrinkle to the problem is that the teen is the daughter of a mobster, Devlin Maguire. Daisy is able to talk to the remnant of the driver but all she learns that there was something unusual and disturbing about this death.

Anubis, Egyptian God
of the Afterlife

Soon afterwards, Daisy is herself kidnapped and taken to the home of the crime boss dad. He wants Daisy to get busy and find his daughter. He offers the service of Carson, a young man who knows a lot about Alexis Maguire's habits, and a witch named Lauren. Lauren puts a binding spell on Daisy so she can't just hightail it out of there at the first opportunity. With Carson's help, Daisy and Carson escape and follow up a lead provided by Alexis's dead grandmother to the cemetery where they find a mysterious flash drive. Daisy now finds herself on the run with Carson, but the binding spell is still activated and Daisy must continue searching for Alexis.

All is not as it seems in this quick-moving, intense horror thriller. In searching for clues to the Alexis' disappearance, we encounter many dead people including archaeologists, Cleopatra, and the Egyptian God Anubis. Carson and Daisy's adventures lead them to several interesting places in the Midwest, including the St. Louis Art Museum, the Oriental Institute, and my favorite, the Field Museum. I was surprised to find out the truth about the Maguires and the part they play in Daisy's misadventures. Daisy is a likeable character, but I don't think her talent is thoroughly explored or explained very well. Perhaps if I had read the first book, I would understand her better. She has an "attitude" and is rather mouthy, or "kick-ass" as she puts it, which is somewhat explained by her age. I guess I myself sympathize with Agent Gerard, the agent who doesn't want to put up with the teen medium's smart aleck opinions on everything, since teen attitudes like this can get tiresome after awhile, at least to this mother of teenagers.

Sue the T-Rex, Field Museum, Chicago

My favorite part of this book, however, was not the spooky ghost bits with the spirits or the Jackal, but the descriptions of Sue, the Tyrannosaurus and the Field Museum. I love Sue, as most visitors do, and have marvelled at how large she is and how sharp her teeth look. And when Daisy reanimates Sue's bones so that she can chase down the bad guys, I can't help but think of the final scenes of the movie Jurassic Park, in which the T-Rex is running around inside the Park's welcome center. That would be a truly horrifying experience!