“The Accidental Medium” by Tracy Whitwell

I had picked up this book at a bookstore in the UP of Michigan and thought it looked like a silly goofy mystery time. And for the most part it is, but there’s a pretty severe issue that I have with it that is probably going to ruin the whole series for me.

The book centers on Tanz, an actress in London who is struggling to find work. She ends up getting a job at the till of a New Age shop to make ends meet and from there gets friendly with Sheila, one of the readers there. Sheila recognizes that Tanz has a pretty good sense of the dead, and together they start cultivating her senses. Tanz also lands an advertisement that takes her to Spain where her makeup artist recognizes her as Romani and says that her ancestry is where she gets her powers from.

Back at London, a woman comes in for a reading with her boyfriend and both Sheila and Tanz get images of a screaming woman the entire time they are both there. Together they manage to sort out that the dead woman is Mona, and that the couple killed her. Tanz is spooked, but they eventually decide to try and find Mona’s body. They locate her, but then the man shows up and kidnaps them. They manage to get away and get to a police station, where they learn that the man killed his new girlfriend and then committed suicide. Tanz decides to stay in the business of talking to ghosts, although she still doesn’t want to take money for it.

Overall, the book is a really fun, light read! The characters are really amusing and funny, Tanz is a bit of an alcoholic and so are all of her friends really. It is very light on the mystery side, you know from the beginning who murdered Mona, and the mystery doesn’t even take up half of the book really.

My main issue is the stupid bit where it is revealed that she is Romani. That whole thing could have been dropped and the book would still work just as well. It just feeds into dumb stereotypes about gypsies and whatever, totally not necessary. Not to mention that I am pretty sure the author is white as hell and the character keeps being so “proud” of her ancestry, nope, no thanks. Get that out of here.

So while this is fun I am probably giving the rest of the series a pass. I do not want more of the “exotic bloodline” nonsense.