Plot summary
When Gilda Joyce earns a scholarship to attend Our Lady of Sorrows, a private high school for Catholic girls, she discovers that a girl named Dolores Lambert had drowned in the lake near the school a few years ago. In this novel, self-proclaimed psychic investigator Gilda Joyce investigates the mysterious happenings that seem to connect with the drowning of Dolores. Some people say that Dolores walked blindfolded onto a sheet of cracked ice that was overlapping the lake on the eve of Thanksgiving, while trying to get to her house. However, Gilda suspects that someone might have intentionally pushed Dolores into the depths of the lake or made her walk on it. Gilda investigates the drowning of Dolores, and approaches the truth after eavesdropping and sneaking into places she was not supposed to be. Eventually, she discovers that Danielle Menory, Priscilla Barkley, and Nikki Grimaldi were members of The Ladies of the Lake, a secret society. In her initiation ceremony, blindfolded Dolores had to find her way to the ruins where they had the secret club, and she "accidentally" wandered onto the lake and drowned. The girls are eventually punished. The only downfall is that Gilda's scholarship to Our Lady of Sorrows is taken away for having failing grades, although it is implied that she was kicked out for revealing that three of the school's most prized citizens were involved in murder, even if it was an accident.
Ever since her father died, quirky Gilda Joyce has been working hard to sharpen her psychic skills. She's determined to communicate with spirits from the Other Side and become a crack investigator of spooky, twisted mysteries. After wrangling an invitation to visit relatives in San Francisco, Gilda discovers that her dreary, tight-lipped uncle and his strange, delicate daughter need her help to uncover the terrible family secret that has a tortured ghost stalking their home. From poignant to hair-raising and hilarious, this is a behind-the-scenes, tell-all account of the very first case in the illustrious career of Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator.
Author Jennifer Allison discusses the first three books of her "Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator" fantasy series for young adults. She talks about the creation and development of Gilda's character, as well as how she incorporates her own experiences as a school teacher into the books.
The Drowning
In the moonlit landscape surrounding Our Lady of Sorrows, a
blindfolded girl stumbled through the snow. It was the night
before Thanksgiving, and only hours before, she had looked
torward to several days of Thanksgiving vacation away from
school. Now the idea of turkey and sweet potatoes seemed a
remote, unlikely image-something that part of her mind real-
ized she might never experience again.
Where was it that she had been trying to go? Was she truly alone, or
were they still watching her?
She touched the smooth fabric of the blindfold that was tied
so tightly across her eyes, it almost cut into her cheeks. Her nose
and lips were numb, and as she struggled to remove the blind-
fold with clumsy fingers, it seemed that she might as well be
touching someone else's face. She gave up and left the blind-
told on. They would only make her pay some price it she dis-
obeyed the rules.
Waving her arms in front of her, she discovered that there
were no longer tree branches to push out of the way. Maybe I fi-
nally Jound my way back onto the main path, she thought.
But nowa new emptiness surrounded her-a fresh, frozen
Silence, as if the world were waiting for something to happen,
like gunshot
She walked a few steps and found that the earth had suddenly
become perfectly, absurdly flat. As she took another step, her
tennis shoes shot out from under her and her tailbone hit the
ground with a thump
the ground
Cold shot tk
been injected
shock of plum.
lce. For a moment, she lay on the comiorung ice, the snow
as soft as a powdery blanket. She had an overwhelming urge to
gve up-to allow herself to fall asleep. But Jalling asleep could
air, the lead w
second before
and inhaled ic
mean freezing to death, she told herselt. ou have to keep moving.
crushed in a
She rolled onto her side, forced herselt to move onto her
As her pa
hands and knees, and stood up shakily.
reached tow
her down,
I don t care anymore, she thought, struggling onCe more to pull
the freezing blindfokd from her face. This time, she lifted the fab-
ric enough to peek out at her surroundings with part of an eye.
The world was surprisingly bright in the moonlight: blank,
white snow edged with a row ot naked trees that seemed to ob-
at the botta
serve her from a distance-a row of quiet, cold skeletons.
I'm standing on the lake. The girl forced the blindfold over her
temples and finally freed herself from it completely
Disoriented because the snowfall blurred all boundaries be-
tween the lake and the shore, she decided to make her way
toward the trees that beckoned with thin, leafless arms.
A soft crunching sound broke the silencea sound that did
not bode well.
Weren't there people across the ice, waiting for her? A group
of slender girls? If only she could hurry across before it was
too late!
She took another step, and the sickening crunch of ice be-
neath her fet grew louder. A series of cracking sounds followed