Yesternight

A child psychologist travels to Oregon in 1925 on a relatively simple case. Working for the Department of Education, Alice Lind administers tests to children and ascertains the quality of education in the area. Alice discovers a child with incredible intelligence and aptitude for mathematics that surpasses the sleepy schoolhouse run by one teacher. Even more shocking is that the child claims to have memories and abilities from a long-deceased woman. Alice delves deeper into the mystery but finds her own past drawn into the spotlight. The child’s supposed reincarnation and her troubled youth are intertwined in ways no one can expect.

Yesternight by Cat Winters is an incredible historical mystery. Winters slowly amps up the suspense and sets up an amazingly atmospheric novel. Alice Lind serves as an engaging protagonist—struggling to succeed in a “man’s” profession. Alice is flawed and tends to repress negative emotions, making her an unreliable narrator to say the least. Her own personality and difficulties act as a counterpoint to the child’s reincarnation. Haunting, eerie, and eminently engaging, add Yesternight to Cat Winter’s growing bibliography of impressive character-driven novels pivoting on intriguing and earth-shattering reveals.