Publishers Weekly
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Kennedy's deeply original novel, her 11th work of fiction (after What Becomes), nominated for the Orange Prize, is set on a luxury cruise from England to New York. Beth is on the ship with her boyfriend, Derek, who she suspects will propose. When Derek gets sea sick and is confined to their cabin for most of the trip, one of the first clues that something is amiss is that Beth wants him to be ill, so that she can be free to roam, because her ex-lover, Arthur, is on the ship. But her relationship with Arthur was far from ordinary; the two conned people into thinking that the pair could contact the spirits of the dead. Beth eventually left their medium act because she and Arthur "were earning a living out of it, turning big. I couldn't deal with that." Arthur continued but, fraught with guilt, gave much of the spoils to charity. Kennedy circles the awful truth of the relationship between Beth and Arthur in vividly imagined scenes, accompanied by Beth's internal commentary, which can both complement the external action and bog it down in too-clever self-indulgence. But this riddle of a book, from a playful and intelligent writer, is worth a read. Agent: Antony Harwood, the Antony Harwood Literary Agency (U.K.). (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

On an ocean liner during a trans-Atlantic voyage, emotions are intensified as love relationships get tossed about. Elizabeth and Derek are a couple--sort of. At least they're sharing a cabin onboard the ship. They're almost engaged, but not quite, and Elizabeth is looking for reasons to escape from the relationship. Derek is a con artist, a profession that doesn't carry well into romance. Onboard, they meet Arthur Lockwood, yet another con artist, and although Elizabeth pretends to be meeting Arthur for the first time, it turns out they'd been lovers years before, and she wants to hide this fact from Derek. This is easily done, for Derek becomes devastatingly seasick and for days is immobilized in their cabin. Elizabeth gradually, and at first reluctantly, enters into the force field that is Arthur, a charming older man still very much taken with Elizabeth. Despite her initial reticence, she gradually begins to spend more time with Arthur, and eventually, they rekindle their affair. Kennedy becomes lyrically erotic when she gets these two back together. In the interstices, Elizabeth and Arthur and Derek meet other passengers on the voyage, most notably Bunny and Francis, the latter of who is pleased to see Elizabeth turning away from Derek. As Francis explains, "I do get tired of seeing fantastic women with appalling men. It's like some form of blood sacrifice, self-harm"--not that Elizabeth needs too much nudging. Kennedy occasionally takes us away from the claustral atmosphere of the ship to fill in the gaps in Elizabeth's previous life. With a ferocious and probing style, Kennedy examines love and pain and the whole damn thing.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Beth boards a cruise ship with her boyfriend, Derek, and is almost immediately interrupted by a stranger showing her a magic trick. But is he really a stranger? Who's tricking whom? And who is really carrying the mysterious, titular blue book? Enigmatic and sensual, Kennedy's latest novel is full of outright lies and various forms of deception and misdirection. Kennedy deftly weaves an intricate tale, cleverly leading the reader's attention back and forth in the past and present until the end, when she reveals a kernel of truth: a secret of heartbreaking loss linking Beth and the stranger, Arthur, a psychic medium who specializes in communicating with strangers' departed loved ones. In stream-of-consciousness passages, Kennedy's characters reveal their deepest, most intimate thoughts and feelings, which are in sharp contrast to the halting, inarticulate conversations that happen outside their internal monologues. At its heart, this bracing novel is an exploration of the secret feelings we keep from each other and ourselves, the havoc that dishonesty can wreak on a life, and the sometimes futile way we grasp at redemption.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist