Play the Fool by Lina Chern

Reviewed by Jeanne

Katie True is adrift.  Unlike her siblings, she doesn’t excel at anything, doesn’t have the drive to succeed, and feels like an outcast in her family.  The only thing she’s ever done well was read Tarot cards, taught by her Aunt Rosie—who wasn’t exactly on the up and up.  It’s such a habit, though, that Katie even sees people and situations as being represented by various cards, and thanks to Aunt Rosie’s teaching, Katie can read people well enough to make a good show. 

Which is what she decides to do when the guy stumbles into Firebird Imports, the rundown shop in a rundown mall. It’s the latest in Katie’s string of dead-end jobs, and the lack of customers makes it easy for her to suggest a reading.  Hey, she can make a quick $20 and her boss doesn’t have to know.

While Katie’s very skilled at reading people, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help so when her mark—er, customer—rushes to the bathroom, leaving his unlocked phone on the counter, she takes a peek.  Just to make her reading more accurate, you understand.

What she doesn’t expect is to see a photo of her friend Marley.  Especially not when Marley looks very, very dead.

Because Marley was the one person who seemed to really see Katie and didn’t consider her to be an abject failure, Katie decides she’s going to catch Marley’s killer. Trouble is, Katie has a lot of trouble with impulse control and so she rushes into situations.  She’s helped by a sympathetic policeman and her brother Owen who seems to be somewhere on the spectrum but is still considered considerably more successful than Katie.

This was an entertaining first in series book.  I enjoyed Katie’s insight into the card reading, and while I admit I shook my head at her actions at times, I did admire her persistence.  I also admit that I started reading a second book in which the main female character is a twenty-something who drifts from job to job and is considered a failure by her family.  I hope this isn’t going to be the new trend in heroines, as I fear it will get really old really fast for me.

There’s a second book planned, and I look forward to reading it. I hope Katie will have found herself a bit more.