R. A. MacAvoy: Death and Resurrection

[bibliogramma]

This is MacAvoy's return to writing after almost two decades (during which she struggled with debilitating illness). A contemporary fantasy with elements of a mystery/thriller like her most well-known work, Tea with the Black Dragon, Death and Resurrection is the story of Ewen (Yuen) Young, an Asian-American artist and student of the martial arts who gains the ability to enter into Bardo, the realm that spirits pass through after death on their way to the next phase of their journey, after being shot in the heart and revived after dying. Young is not a total stranger to psychic phenomena - he has had a strong connection with his twin sister all of his life, and has developed an ability to connect psychically with other people and bring their consciousness/mind/spirit with him into an imaginary space - an ability he sometimes uses to help his sister in her psychiatric practice. The attack on him is connected with the murder if his uncle and martial arts teacher, and his abilities eventually become the means by which he is able to prevent further harm from coming to his family.

The novel is told in episodic format, with four sections. As the novel progresses, first the police detectives who became involved with Ewen (and aware of his special gifts) in the matter of his uncle's murder (and his own near-murder) turn to him for help with a case of serial murders that turns out to be more supernatural than natural and that requires him to call on every resource he has to end the killing.

While the narrative of the novel deals with learning to use power and, and more importantly, using it well in the service of others, the core of the story is about learning to open the heart - about love and relationship, between family, friends, lovers, between healer and those in need of healing, and - as one might expect - death and resurrection. Of life, of hope, of love.