Kaleidoscope

Madame Karitska #2

by Dorothy Gilman

Next to the incomparable Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman’s best-loved character is the mysterious Madame Karitska, who is blessed with a powerful gift of clairvoyance that attracts to her a stream of men and women craving help with their misfortunes, desperate to know what the future holds. . . .

When a brilliant young violinist dies in a horrific accident, Madame Karitska has only to hold the victim’s instrument in her hands to perceive the shocking truth. But when an insecure wife asks whether her husband will abandon her to join a sinister cult, Madame Karitska–as wise as she is lovely–chooses not to reveal all that she foresees. And when an attaché case is suddenly dropped into her lap by a man fleeing a crowded subway, she knows it’s time to consult her good friend Detective-Lieutenant Pruden.

A nine-year-old accused of murder, a man dying a slow death by witchcraft– for the hunted and the haunted, Madame Karitska’s shabby downtown apartment becomes a haven, where brilliant patterns of violence, greed, passion, and strange obsessions mix and disintegrate with stunning, kaleidoscopic beauty.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Paranormal, Cozy Mystery, Adult, Suspense, Cozy

241 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Dorothy Edith Gilman started writing when she was 9 and knew early on she was to be a writer. At 11, she competed against 10 to 16-year-olds in a story contest and won first place. She attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and briefly the University of Pennsylvania. She planned to write and illustrate children's books. She married Edgar A. Butters Jr, in 1945, this ended in divorce in 1965. Dorothy worked as an art teacher & telephone operator before becoming an author. She wrote children’s stories for more than ten years under the name Dorothy Gilman Butters and then began writing adult novels about Mrs. Pollifax–a retired grandmother who becomes a CIA agent. The Mrs. Pollifax series made Dorothy famous. While her stories nourish people’s thirst for adventure and mystery, Dorothy knew about nourishing the body as well. On her farm in Nova Scotia, she grew medicinal herbs and used this knowledge of herbs in many of her stories, including A Nun in the Closet. She travelled extensively, and used these experiences in her novels as well. Many of Dorothy’s books, feature strong women having adventures around the world. In 2010 Gilman was awarded the annual Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Dorothy spent much of her life in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Maine. She died at age 88 of complications of Alzheimer's disease. She is survived by two sons, Christopher Butters and Jonathan Butters; and two grandchildren.

Series:
* Mrs. Pollifax

Reviews

[MB (What she read) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars on the reread.

I've always enjoyed Dorothy Gilman's (non Pollifax) mysteries most, so when this one came up cheap on offer from Amazon, I bought it to re-read.

I enjoyed it but found the internal chronology to be distinctly wonky upon reread. I wonder if it was 'furbished up' inadequately for republication as an ebook? If so, it was not done well.

Overall this is a pre-cellphone era mystery/suspense novel that is supposedly set post 2000/after Oklahoma City Bombings. Weird anachronistic happenings, character attitudes and responses, and an out-of-sync setting made this kind of confusing reading.

(Supposedly this was published recently but sure doesn't feel that way. I felt internal chronology was early 1980's era accurate (+/-)

Remember, I notice weird things. Don't let my weird reading response stop you from reading this book. However, you'll probably enjoy this more if you're at least my age or older. Younger readers, take warning.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 I love the Madame Karitska series and I wish that there were more than 2 books with this character! I enjoyed this book even more than the first. The way that Dorothy Gilman sets up the book is fantastic - each chapter is almost like a short story mystery, but the chapters flow together under a far greater overall plot.

It would be wonderful to have Madame Karitska as a friend in real life. She not only has impressive psychic abilities, but practical sense, down-to-earth attitude, a grateful and thoughtful nature...and, most of all, courage and vitality.

Reading the books in this series is not only fun and entertaining, but refreshing as well. I felt more hopeful and optimistic about life after reading both of these books and I can't quite put my finger on the exact reason why.

Highly recommended!

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One really cannot tell that 20 years plus separated the first Karitska The Clairvoyant Countess book from this second one. It is a seamless continuation of the delightful clairvoyant and the interesting characters she touched and interacted with. The two books are light and enjoyable reads.
I like this author's other series featuring Mrs. Pollifax as well.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I supposed it does stand alone, but I would really urge books to read The Clairvoyant Countess first for backstory, if possible. Not so much a set of interconnected stories, but subplots that come together by the end. Wasn't wild about the "terrorism" angle late in the book, but the rest worked fine.

[Barbara Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is amazing that this book was written in the nineteen seventies. Even though it is very light, it touches on problems we are still facing after the century turned. I enjoy reading things that are not dark, but still faces dark things, with a clear eyed let's just fix this attitude. Ok. the cheerful let's just fix this mess may be more of a fantasy than the idea of clairvoyance. Sometimes I like cheerful fantasy along with the books with a "we are all going to die horribly" theme.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019 reread:
I hadn't had enough of Madame Karitska when I finished "The Clairvoyant Countess" so I immediately reread this sequel. It is a little odd that while this book was written ~25 years after the first one, only about a year has passed in the life of the characters.

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaleidoscope, to my surprise, was better than The Clairvoyant Countess! I preferred the more unified plot structure of this sequel, and the mysteries were more creative and intriguing. The only subplot I didn't like much was the electricity terrorism one, which simply doesn't fit with the rest and doesn't even have the direct involvement of Madame Karitska or Pruden. It felt like a setup for another sequel but it doesn't work well, especially at the very end.

Luckily most of the book still has that indefinable Gilman charm, so if you are a fan of Mrs. Pollifax or the first Madame Karitska book, Kaleidoscope is a safe bet!

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mme Karitska uses her psychic powers to solve some mysteries, but something is very odd here. The characters, less than a year after the first book, still act like it is the mid 70s. Their whole outlook on life is a 70s outlook. Yet they now reference contemporary-to-the-2002-publishing date events like the Heaven’s Gate cult, have cell phones, fear not the Bomb but a terrorist takedown of the electrical grid. I have no issues with a book using the “present now”, but these characters and the newer ones who appear are clearly living in the 70s and nothing in the book would have suffered if the references were not there. I remember not being impressed with this book when I first read it, but now, reading it so close to reading the Clairvoyant Countess, I can see what’s wrong with it. Sadly, I think this last book of Gilman’s may show the marks of the Alzheimer’s that killed her ten years later. She deserved a better last book. At least there were more female characters this time!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the "sequel" to The Clairvoyant Countess which was written in the 60's. The characters still have that old fashioned feel and language to them--a very gentle old-world feel. I wish that there would be more of these but, alas, Dorothy Gilman is no longer with us!

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothy Gilman's two novels with Madame Karitska are a prime example of the magic of books. The first book was written in 1975 and balances timeless stories firmly centered in the 1970s. The second novel with Madame Karitska was published 27 years later picks up the character narrative about 6 to 12 months after the closing events of the first book--for example a couple who met at the end are now engaged to be married. The second novel continues the story format with timeless stories and the timeline feels like it shifts to an era that finds the issues of the 1970s that feel at home in the early 2000s. Time clearly has moved on, as one character notes the Y2K event. A note from the author mentions that she had an interest in continuing this character, but was already writing a long-running series and did not want to manage two multi-volume series.

I definitely recommend these as a fun light read with a cast of characters that grows with each chapter. Madame Karitska and her friend Detective-Inspector Pruden make a complementary team, especially because their work together is (most-often) not forced into a situation where the clairvoyant countess heads out for stakeouts.

However, Gilman's stand-out book still remains A Nun in the Closet.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must have read this before. Must have. But it's not on my Goodreads, and I didn't own a copy, so I picked it up discounted from Thriftbooks. Let's be honest, Madame Karitska is Mrs Pollifax in another life, but that's fine with me because I love Mrs Pollifax. They interact with younger people the same way, present the same life lessons in the same pointed but gentle tone, believe in the same doses of reality and the same openness to the unseen. They are identically independent and interwoven with their ever-widening circle of intriguing individuals, whom they matchmake in the same way. They enjoy the same carnival rides to the same music and tell the same fortunes if needed, find personality clues in the work of the same poet, and keep their own counsel in the same quiet way. If you like Mrs Pollifax but would like to see her stay in the confines of a city neighborhood, Madame Karitska is for you.

[Linda Branham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reread! I read this several years ago and decided to read it again
It is thoroughly enjoyable and fun reading. The main character is Madame Karitska, who is blessed with a powerful gift of clairvoyance (psychometry) - she gets involved in police business and helping people through the information that she gets from them
I will probably reread it again ... at a future time

[Britt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I love these stories of Madame Karitska and her collection of friends that are like family. It's interesting to see how the threads tie together and collect.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book several times. Love the plot and characters. Second in a series. Clean read.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the stories of Madame Karitska. I hope Dorothy Gilman makes more. She great!

[Child960801 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The edition of this that I read had a fun chapter at the beginning where the author talks about why she chose to write a sequel almost 20 years after the first one came out.

Again, we find Madame Karitska helping the police solve crimes, meeting new people, and being a whole light to those around her.

[C-shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great little book, with lots of different characters, all helped by Madame Karitska, a psychometric who gets impressions of people from touching items they own, helping police to solve crimes. I don't cotton to such things, but the story is good and Madame is quite likeable.

[Carolyn Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been trying to figure out what I love so much about Dorothy Gilman. Although the Clairvoyant Countess is not my favorite of her characters, it is still recognizably a Dorothy Gilman book. She has such hope for people and sees within a landscape of sadness and difficulty seeds of transformation and human goodness.

In this sequel to The Clairvoyant Countess we see again Madame Karitska using her talent to bring people together and rescue those in danger. It is rather like a collection of short stories that intertwine with each other until finally wrapping up in a conclusion.

I was somewhat disappointed with the ending since we do not know how the US was saved from attack, only that her information was vital to do so.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do love the main character, Madame Karinska! As in the first book featuring her, she is a very kind and practical psychic who uses her powers to help others. Her gift is psychometry, the ability to get information about a person by holding an object that the person has owned for a long while. In this book she solves many problem for her clients as well as for the police. As in the past book, there are some situations which are quickly resolved as well as a longer mystery to be solved. The author creates a very warm community feeling in these books that I really appreciate. I highly recommend this book to all mystery readers who need a little break from blood and guts!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The psychometric reader Madame Karitska is back, in a collection of short stories that link up into (almost) a novel. Madame lives in a poor part of a fictionalized city, but has won the respect of many, including important police officers. She helps her unhappy neighbors with their lives, creates a few matches without actively matchmaking, and is able to find the answer to several criminal puzzles, all without ruffling her composure. This is really easy reading, and despite at least one threatening apocalyptic tale, quite relaxing.

[Alycia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mrs. Pollifax books are my favorite by Gilman but this was still quite good! The reason for the 3 star rating being that the book was written as if it were short stories rather than one cohesive storyline. I don't care for that.

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

too bad there won't be a next time

[Mary's Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe closer to 3.5. As always in a Dorothy Gilman story, it is well-told and well-written. 'Kaleidoscope' was the second novel she wrote featuring Madame Karitska, the Clairvoyant Countess. I have not read the first book (The Clairvoyant Countess), but the reader is given enough background information to understand that she is an empathetic and enigmatic person with an exotic background that includes being a refugee in Kabul.
Madame Karitska has fetched up in a close approximation of Brooklyn in a brownstone where she accepts clients as a Reader. Bur Madame Karitska prefers to read the present and the past, not the future. In her previous endeavors, she has proved useful to the police and has a close friend on the force, Detective Pruden.
'Kaleidoscope' lives up to its title by featuring almost a dozen cases that range from finding the perpetrator of a hit-and-run to breaking into an estate run by a cult leader. None of the cases would be enough to carry a whole book, but they are woven together in such a way that Madame Karitska's life is more fully revealed. This is an old-fashioned style of story, lightweight and mostly non-violent. I enjoyed it, but I think that a bit stronger plotting would have made it a better book.

[Scott Paulson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book flows quite smoothly. It has smaller, episodic stories along with several intertwining and over-arching stories. At one point, I had to back up about six chapters to refresh my memory of a name that was part of an earlier episode. It is different than Ms. Gilman’s “Mrs. Pollifax” books in that it runs more slowly, almost pedestrian, in its pace. But this is a good tone, and the picture fits the frame.

I gave it four stars instead of five because a key to the plot is the use of psychometry, a type of clairvoyance, if I understand it correctly. And I point this out so anyone uncomfortable with any hint of paranormal is aware of it. Several online sources suggest the practice has no scientific basis. I have no way of saying one way or another, though to be sure, we leave our DNA on whatever we touch and use. But in any case, this is a novel, a work of fiction, so suspension of reality is both allowed and understood.

It is well written, with suspense, plot twists, and believable character development. The stories also explore the power of suggestion, the influence we all have on one another, and nature of coincidence and serendipity.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book of September down! This one was my first Madame Karitska book but I don’t think it was my first book by Dorothy Gilman. I’m pretty sure in the past I’ve read one of her Mrs. Pollifax novels but I can’t for the life of me remember which one.

Anyway. This was a weird jumble of a book-length mystery (more like a curiosity though, not a full-blown mystery) with mini mysteries each chapter or two. So it’s this strange combination of short stories connected with a continuous thread of storyline. I didn’t mind it, though, once I figured out that each chapter was meant to be read as a book and not as a short story. Madame Karitska was a lovable character and I thoroughly enjoyed her supporting cast.

[Karen GoatKeeper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Madame Karitska is back along with Detective Pruden.
One case follows another. Some are related and surface in several places. The Madame even plays a fortune teller at a carnival and entertains a marriage proposal.
The book is a fast, easy, relaxing one to read. As it is episodic, it is possible to pause between adventures, maybe, as long as your eyes don't wander onto the next page. Stopping in the middle of a case is difficult and tortures the mind with thoughts of what is going to happen.
The author's style in all of her books is relaxed, but still grabs the reader and hangs on until the last sentence is read. The books are an enjoyable read also as they need no graphic violence or foul language to tell a fascinating tale.

[Gwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read a (new to me) Gilman, complete with explanation at the beginning of how the first story came to be, and how the second (this one). Although decades passed between the two books about Madame Karitska, this continuation reads like it was just last year or so that the first volume came out. Only now there are computers, cellphones, and more!

The stories are interwoven, so that characters and episodes from one leak into the next, and all the happenings in Trafton, and the readings, are linked. Wayward children, secret Gypsies, and an almost apocalyptic ending: Madame Karitska leads a colorful life in a quiet but profound way.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character is a psychic who helps solve crimes. This is a pretty crappy book. The characters are superficial at best; there's no plot, the book is little more than a series of vignettes, and it's filled with anachronisms and stereotypes and just plain stupid stuff. Really, if you hit someone on the head hard enough to knock them out, the police don't take him to the station for booking when he comes too, they take them in an ambulance to the ER, unless he happens to be black, and then they just shoot them dead. This book is a waste of paper.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sequel to The Clairvoyant Countess. Madame Karitska continues to help policeman Pruden in severa of his cases. Again it is similar to a collection of short stories tied together with a unifying theme, including a girl thought to have died in a car accident who M. Karitska is sure is still alive, a little girl accused of murder, and men apparently dying from a voodoo curse. Some new characters make their appearance. I read it straight through - couldn't put it down until I found out what happened to everybody! Another fun easy read with likeable characters.

[Carol Langley Hensley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a Wonderful Series!

Four and three-quarters stars! Both of the books in the Madame Karitska series are engaging, mysterious, eye-opening, and very entertaining! I'm sad that Dorothy Gilman wasn't able to author two different series, but I quite understand how many people have fallen in love with Mrs. Pollifax, since I am one of them! I just wish that Ms. Gilman had been able to continue writing additional Madame Karitska mysteries. I can only imagine how the series may have turned out!