People have split opinions on whether psychic abilities exist, but when they get talking, many reveal a story they can’t quite explain. Like my editor, at St. Martin’s Press, who told me she found herself thinking of a long-lost friend out of the blue…right before that friend called.
Back in the 1960s, ESP wasn’t just debated: There was a ferocious and well-financed effort to harness the untapped abilities of the mind. The possibility of gifts like premonition and clairvoyance were rigorously studied by prestigious colleges including Duke University, which conducted experiments in its renowned Parapsychology Laboratory.
When I began to research The Women In White —a fictional book about an obsessed scientist and the four exceptional young women who serve as his subjects—I dug into the Duke archives, which are now housed at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, NC. It was astonishing to learn about the old experiments as well as the ways parapsychology has been studied by other universities, by governments across the world, and even by an Apollo 14 astronaut who conducted experiments in space, unbeknownst to NASA.
Believe what you will about psychics, but here are a few facts, which I wove into my novel: There’s a certain woman who has assisted police in more than 4,000 investigations. Abraham Lincoln might have had a premonition about his untimely death. And UVA’s school of medicine is currently compiling a database of children from around the world who have described apparent recollections of a previous life, including some astonishing cases.
If you’re intrigued by books with paranormal elements, here are a few I highly recommend.
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Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas
Anything by Koontz is a terrific read, but Odd Thomas is one of his standouts. It’s about a simple short-order cook who sees dead people and tries to help them. Odd Thomas is an unexpected, endearing character and what I love most about this book is that it doesn’t just have a racing pulse—it has a heart.
Jason Rekulak, Hidden Pictures
A live-in nanny named Mallory takes a seemingly good job caring for a young boy who likes to draw. Then the child’s sweet drawings of bunnies and trees turn much more sophisticated…and terrifying. The boy seems to have inexplicable knowledge of a murder, and Mallory suspects the pictures are a message from a ghost.
Steven King, The Shining
This classic stands the test of time. A writer isolates his family in a creepy old hotel during a blizzard…what could go wrong? Add to the mix a five-year-old son who can “see” alarming events connected to the hotel’s past, and it’s hard to think of a more eerie setting for a book.
Tracy Sierra, Nightwatching
Although this book doesn’t have paranormal elements on the surface, the possibility of them emerges, and I jumped at the chance to include it because I’m such a fan. After an editor sent me an early copy of Nightwatching, I turned to the first page, wondering if it would catch my interest, and ended up reading it twice. It’s about a mother who’s alone in a strange old house in the middle of a fierce storm, trying to protect her two children against an intruder.
But the police, and the reader, begin to suspect that the threat may be all in her mind.
Dean Koontz, Intensity
Ok, this one doesn’t reach into the realm of the paranormal, but I had to include another Koontz, not just because he’s the master, but because this is one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. It’s the story of a young woman who becomes ensnarled with a serial killer. Koontz doesn’t take his foot off the gas for even a second. It’s riveting, creepy, and suspenseful on every single level.
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