Jo Macgregor’s The First Time I Fell is the second of the Garnet McGee series of a psychology student who has a knack for landing in the middle of a mystery. In the first novel, Garnet gained certain abilities after dying and coming back to life, leaving her with not only two eyes of different color but a little more insight than the rest of the world. The review of this first exciting novel in this series is here. If you haven’t read the first book, then please stop here as some of this review may spoil it.
For this second outing, Garnet is back in Pitchford, Vermont three months later in March. She’s here to babysit a neighbor’s house and take care of their dogs as she works on her master’s thesis. While out on a walk, she finds the body of a young woman and receives visions of what occurred, telling her the fallen woman was murdered despite all evidence pointing to suicide.
Garnet doesn’t completely trust her psychic abilities at the start of the book. This novel revels in her starting to flex her supernatural muscles. These sequences remind me of reading a supernatural person’s origin story. They’re fun because the hero is reluctant at this point, not quite sure where their newfound powers will take them. Garnet decides to look into the mystery with the help of Pitchford’s sheriff and lets him in on her secret.
The story takes surprising twists and turns, has an interesting subplot involving a potential ghost haunting Garnet’s house, and ultimately arrives at an exciting climax. This novel, like the first, was well-researched, and details which seem unconnected to the plot become relevant at the end. A technical mystery lives and dies by its research and its ability to convey to the reader its details in common language. This novel does a great job of doing just that.
A sequel, or second in a series, always has the challenge of where to take a character if it has successfully completed an arc in the first book. If the author doesn’t complete the arc in the first novel, the reader feels cheated. But if the author does, then where to go next? The First Time I Fell also handles this problem superbly. Garnet really feels like she’s growing and going somewhere in this book, and to this extent, I enjoyed it more than the first. Garnet feels like she’s finding a direction in her life through this entire novel.
The rest of the characters, new and old, continue to delight the reader. As in the first novel, her mother remains the standout character. Some key people from the first are given short shrift here, but that’s to be expected. In their place are new, potential suspects of the murder. When Garnet decides to investigate the mystery on her own, she meets with others’ expected resistance, and her discussions with the victim’s friends and coworkers make for some great sequences.
Is there humor in this novel? In spades. Garnet’s point-of-view is perfect for injecting some levity into a serious, dark theme. (I laughed out loud at references to quorns, yams, and quarks.) And action? Not as much as I recall in the first novel, but when it happens, it pulls the reader in. No one will set this book aside in the middle of those passages.
Macgregor’s writing here is as skillful as in the first novel. Her description of extraction of maple syrup from the trees “like the maples were hooked up to intravenous lines, only these tubes were drawing the lifeblood from the trees” conjures up exactly the right image. The author does a great job bringing winter in Vermont alive.
Overall, the second book in this series succeeds at a level equal to or exceeding the first novel. It builds upon the premier novel in character and suspense. I don’t know exactly if the third in the series will be what was hinted at at the end of the novel, but I hope there are plenty more “Garnet McGee, Psychic Detective” (said cheekily) to come in the series.
Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0639810969