Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door

Riley Thorn’s reluctance to embrace her psychic powers conveys her fear of accepting her true nature. For years, Riley has rebelled against her “patchouli-scented, homegrown-vegetable-selling, séance-attending childhood” in an attempt to prove her normalcy to the world (1). She’s self-conscious of her hippie, spiritually inclined parents and sister, and longs to fit in with her more conventional peers, colleagues, and contemporaries. In an attempt to change who she really is, she even abandoned her career aspirations in television to work a job she doesn’t care about and to marry (but then divorce) a man who is more fake than her “fake boyfriend” Nick Santiago. However, the more that Riley defies her authentic spirit and genuine nature, the more at odds she is with the world and the people around her. Throughout the novel, Riley’s adventures with Nick and her band of misfit friends introduce her to challenges that reveal her genuine power and beauty.

Riley’s amateur sleuthing work with her romantic interest, Nick, opens her to new experiences, which require heart, intelligence, wit, and creativity. At first, Riley tells Nick she has no interest in using her psychic or clairvoyant powers and would rather solve the