As mystery stories go, Fullerton brings a fairly typical plotline alive with
an added twist – a very interactive ghost. While this takes the reality
underpinning the storyline down several notches, Piercing the Veil is still a decent read and includes all the necessary ingredients for a puzzling mystery. With her
legal education background, Fullerton utilizes her strengths to make a setting she can bring to life: the courts.
Protagonist Anne Marshall is a law student at night and court reporter by day,
her life filled with individuals who not only work around the courts but help to
enforce the laws upon which the country is built. When a troubling and very public divorce case comes to Anne’s designated courtroom, her life
turns upside-down. Her father, a well-respected lawyer and unstoppable force in the
pursuit of justice, comes to Anne with the request that she uncover the truth about the greedy and evil defendant, Tim Sherman. While Anne struggles with trying to find the proof of Tim Sherman’s guilt, she also has to question her sanity
- after all, she is teaming up with the ghost of her dead father.
As the plot thickens and Anne’s actions alienate her friends and loved ones, the murder of Tim’s mistress may allow him to get away scot-free. Obsessed and determined
that justice prevail, Anne herself crosses the lines of law and directly interferes in
a homicide case. In the face of Anne’s obsessive hunt, the killer is poised to
strike yet again, and Anne is the intended target.
Overall, Piercing the Veil is a fine mystery,
although the protagonist is not as appealing as one would like and the ending anticlimatic. Unlike Heather Graham,
who brings the supernatural into the plots of her novels such as Ghost Walk, Fullerton’s supernatural interactions are decidedly over-the-top,
raising the level of absurdity in an otherwise decent book.