Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen

Author: Caitlin Mullen 

Title: Please See Us

Publisher: Gallery Books 

Published: 2020

Pages: 352

Genre: Mystery / Thriller 

     Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there. Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl—so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?

     I suppose for the longest time my leanings toward police-driven thrillers stopped me from going into crimes many other subgenres.  It is something I have been trying to correct for the last couple of years. And in doing so I started to come across more and more books such as this one. People stuck in dire situations, forced into investigating murders and crimes around them in the hopes of not ending up the next victim of some unnamed killer or gang. This in part is what drew me into reading this book. The characters sound like they had real depth and it had the feeling as if based on some true story all be it buried under many layers. I would say to the best of my knowledge this is an entirely fictional work. The other thing that finalized my decision to give this book a go is its setting. I can safely say that my entire knowledge of this city is based on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Probably not the best thing to base your understanding on when it comes to real-life location and people but such is life. There is also the fact that the tv show is based in the past and this book is based in the present. It is kind of looking at opposite ends of a caleidoscope. One is all big lights and dreams and the other is the stark reality of what you are doing. 

     The narrative is split between our two heroes each to some extent or another showing us different aspects of living in a city once great but is now circling the drain. Atlantic City seems to be a land of people who have come to the end of the line having finally given up on trying to outrun their pasts. It is parts of their history that the author allows us to explore all the while pulling apart the mysteries of the present. We get to see our heroes as fully fleshed-out people, and in the case of this book that can only be a good thing. We need to bond with them and care what their final outcomes will be. In part, this is due to it being a fairly bleak story to go through. This is a tale of the dregs, people who for the most part are forgotten. They are the ones you walk past on the street and given not a second thought to. Their lives are filled with despair and scratching around to earn enough to make it through another day. It is also what binds our heroes together. And will also lead them down a path that will mean confronting their own demons as well as the one that is stalking the street. Grabbing girls when they are at their most vulnerable only for them to never be seen again. 

     It is hard to believe this is Mullen's first outing into the world of writing. This is a tale that seemed to have been polished to perfection. She has created this completely believable sandbox for her tale to play out in. And despite it feeling so oppressive in its relentlessness in depicting these women's lives I could not put it down, so captivated by this narrative. She seems to have found this great balance in telling some very deeply personal tales alongside using the tale of a mysterious killer to show how easy it is to become so forgettable. People whose murders go noticed for the most part by those around them. I guess it shows what an uncaring place a city can be. She highlights the worst part of Atlantic City those parts that you would fear to tread unless you truly had to go. It would be far too easy to once again show these people and places as two-dimensional cliches. But in a mark of a skilled writer, she shies away from that giving us at least in part explanations for the hows and whys. It also allows this story to build a heart and gives its inhabitants some small flicker of hope. It lifts the whole thing up and for me makes it something other than just another mystery thriller. 

     I guess what I'm trying to say through all this is that it is a novel of two halves.  In part, you have a character study of people who have simply run out of any luck they may have once had. They must fight every day to keep their heads above water. And the other side you have this serial killer case to pull apart. Which I think for me was defiantly a tricky one as we are not really given clues in the traditional sense.  I suppose it serves as a catalyst and a backdrop for these women without being the sole main focus. But when all is said and done this was a book that captivated me with its heartache and I'm sure will stick with me for some time yet.