Alycone ‘Aly’ Orleans had plans. The main one being to escape her hometown of Wyndale, Florida. Not just any old small town in Florida. Wyndale is a psychic town, and cynical Aly is Scully to everyone else in town’s Mulder. But you know what they say about best-laid plans, right? Well, if you don’t, go look it up. Because in the blink of an eye Aly’s life changed…big time. Her father dies and because her mom left the family years ago, flitting in an out of their lives like a ghost, Aly has to leave her anthropology program at the University of Florida to raise her younger sister Merope and run the family business, The Museum of Unusual Occurrence, a museum of occult oddities and supernatural curiosities.
Although she does her duty and is fiercely protective of her younger sister, Aly doesn’t exactly embody joie de vivre, which makes her a very relatable character. She’s just trying to keep it together, just like the rest of us. However, that becomes impossible when she finds the dead body of a young woman with coins over her eyes and covered in flower petals inside one of the museum’s displays.
Who was she and how the hell did her body get into the museum? Realizing both she and Merope could be in danger, and prodded into looking into the occult aspects of the case by her former school friend turned police detective, Bud, Aly decides she best be finding out thus adding sleuth to her titles of surrogate mom and business owner.
Heavy on small-town secrets and exploring themes of skepticism, belief, obsession, and how dangerous love and the need for validation can be, Erica Wright’s The Museum of Unusual Occurrence is filled with quirky, flawed and unforgettable characters, gothic vibes, and a highly likeable heroine you can’t help but root for even when she. Not to mention a unique setting that’s as vibrant and alive as any of the characters. This is a solid first installment in the Psychic City mystery series.
