After being humiliated at an art gallery opening featuring her boyfriend’s work, Lily retreats home to Atlantic City to regroup and decide her next move. Clara Voyant, a teenaged girl working as a psychic and tarot reader at her aunt’s shop, becomes a friend of Lily’s helping her to navigate the new reality of the town. Over in the wetlands, two bodies are decomposing, and the count is climbing as the summer rolls along.

Luis, a deaf and mute young man, who works at the hotel spa where Lily finds employment, is mourning the loss of his grandparents. His pain and frustration take a destructive course over the summer, while Lily and the other receptionist, Emily, are doing their best to keep Clara and her aunt Des out of the spa so they don’t steal from the paying guests. Clara’s dream is to move to Los Angeles with her mother in order to escape Atlantic City and the constant lifestyle of conning and stealing from people.

This debut novel was ripe with description, making it easy to imagine the characters and their struggles, both internal and external. Lily’s embarrassment, Emily’s hope that education would get her out of town, Clara’s California dream, and Des’ drug addiction all entwine in an interesting way, making me care about the characters and wonder what would happen to them. This was a good solid murder mystery that kept me engaged throughout.

Wow!! This book was incredible! The writing was very impressive. Loved that it wasn't a police/detective type thriller. There was just the right amount of suspense. Great debut novel - cannot wait to read more by Caitlin Mullen

From debut author Caitlin Mullen comes PLEASE SEE US, a literary thriller written in the vein of greats such as Laura Lippman and Chloe Benjamin and set in the ripe-for-drama beachside town of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

For readers unfamiliar with Atlantic City’s storied and sordid past, allow me to offer a brief history lesson. Founded in 1854 between an interesting combination of marshlands and islands, Atlantic City was initially eyed by developers as a potential resort town. A successful partnership with railway investors made it an easy weekend and vacation destination, prompting tremendous growth in the early 1900s, when a permanent boardwalk was erected and elegant, architecturally stimulating hotels were constructed. Casinos and nightclubs followed, and the city saw a boom during the Prohibition era, when alcohol, limited nearly everywhere else, continued to flow in the backrooms of casinos. But paired with this sense of hedonism came organized crime, prostitution and drugs. By the end of the 20th century, Atlantic City was in the middle of an economic decline marked by an upswing in the drug use of its citizens, the closing of numerous fancy hotels and a general sense of hopelessness.

Set in the present day, PLEASE SEE US opens on the gruesome scene of two murdered women lying in the marshlands. Acting as a sort of Greek chorus, these Jane Does watch as the lights of Atlantic City flicker and women just like them strap on their high heels, wiggle into their skin-tight dresses and head out into the night to make a living the only way they can. Armed with the vivid clarity that comes with death, the Janes watch as a single man moves through the city, striking down its sex workers with the aim of cutting it down. Though we do not know their identities yet, they are immediately familiar --- desperate, broken and undone. Confronting us with the darkest part of the city, Mullen beckons readers not only to see the women she writes about, but to really look at them and their stories.

Moving closer into the city, we meet Clara (full name: Clara Voyant, a delightfully ridiculous pun), an underage clairvoyant who lives with Des, her deadbeat mother’s closest friend. Gorgeous and haunted, Des and Clara read fortunes on the boardwalk, commit petty thefts and struggle to get by in a town that has largely forgotten them. Des supplements their income by dancing and providing special treatments to men after hours. Though Des’ gift for reading the cards and telling fortunes is based more on street smarts, Clara is the real deal. Her visions are not controllable, but they are able to show her a person’s deepest hurts and desires, helping her to guide her customers toward the right paths, even as she hurdles down the wrong one. But when Clara reads the fortune of a distraught man looking for his niece, she has a disturbing vision that feels a little too real. For days, she feels flies crawling on her when there is nothing there and sees visions of violence and fear, prompting her to wonder if she is seeing the last moments of the man’s niece’s life.

Across the city we meet Lily, a former New York City gallery girl whose life was recently destroyed by her privileged ex-boyfriend in the name of art. Tail between her legs, Lily returns to the forlorn, forgotten city she swore never to visit again. Though she is adamant that she will return to New York by the end of the summer, Lily needs a job to make that dream a reality, so she finds herself working at a spa in one of the city’s failing resorts. Putting her artist’s eye to good use, she is struck by the juxtaposition of self-care and luxury and the reality of the streetwalkers who are not allowed past the spa’s glass doors.

This dichotomy is most strikingly realized when Lily meets Clara. Hypnotized by the girl’s age and ability to seduce everyone around her, and beleaguered by memories of what she knows happens to girls like Clara in Atlantic City, Lily strikes up a careful friendship with the young clairvoyant. Touched by Lily’s attention, Clara starts to believe in her visions and their connections to the missing girl whose face is plastered all over town. When more girls go missing, Lily and Clara band together to figure out who is victimizing Atlantic City’s women.

PLEASE SEE US is an intense slowburn of a psychological thriller. Mullen’s version of suspense comes not from bloody handprints or red herrings, but from the perceptive and poignant insights into the lives of young women --- and not just the ones who find themselves walking the streets at night in Atlantic City. Mullen writes of violence, womanhood and power in ways that will disturb her readers, but she is notably never gratuitous or voyeuristic in her descriptions of sex and violence, rage and power. Instead, she writes with an unflinching eye, shining a light on the women forgotten by news stories and activists and begging her readers to see the reality of life for all women, especially those who have fallen victim to abusive men, drug abuse, poverty or mental illness.

Focusing not on their mistakes or flaws, Mullen highlights the unfairness of the myriad expectations placed on women and how the tension can often lead them to fall. She writes in one particularly poignant passage, “The world was always conspiring to make young women vulnerable while labeling it as ‘fun.’ Made it seem like we were in control, like we were making all the choices, and then it was our fault when things went wrong. Us and our short skirts, our makeup, our taste for rum, for liking the things we were told to like, wanting what we were taught to want.” Proving her point, no one in the city but Clara or Lily cares or notices when two, then three, then four women disappear. These tattooed, voluptuous and scarred ladies cannot have their haunted, sunken eyes gazing at viewers from the news channels or “missing” posters, and so the city ignores them.

Rounding out Clara and Lily’s narratives is the perspective of Luis, a deaf and mute man who sees far more than anyone realizes, and whose story gives readers an even greater --- and, if we’re being honest, more heartbreaking --- view of the crumbling seaside town and its lost citizens. Combined with the viewpoints of Clara and Lily, Luis’ side gives us a complete 360-degree view of Atlantic City, and the juxtaposition of glamour and degradation is enough to horrify and depress any reader. And yet, somehow, Mullen uses her exquisite prose and thought-provoking insights to push readers forward. This was a book I wanted to put down so many times --- not because it was bad, but because it was too vivid, too painful, too real --- but I could not do it once. Alluding to her book’s title, Mullen begs her readers to see these girls. As impossible as it seems, she is able to explore every Jane Doe’s background, every fatal flaw and every slide into danger, never once losing her audience in the horrors of it all.

Thrillers have seen a rise in popularity in recent years, but PLEASE SEE US is not like anything I have read before. Mullen’s prose is so beautifully rendered and her pace so careful that you almost forget there is a mystery at the book’s core. The girls’ lives are too gripping to focus on the killer, and Mullen proposes too many painful questions to care about the “whodunit.” But this is the glory of her work --- there is no spotlight on violent or rage-fueled men, but rather on the women who suffer at their hands. I will say that the ending shocked me in the most stunning way; although they are not similar, I can only compare it to the complete sense of horror I felt when reading books like THE SILENT PATIENT and THE WIFE BETWEEN US.

Mullen is a bright new talent, and I was constantly in awe of the fact that this is her debut; she is so skilled and so cadenced, with every word chosen with the care of a poet. I foresee a long career for her, and I cannot wait to find out where she turns her literary eye next.

As always, a big thank you to Gallery Books for the advanced copy of Please See Us out now!

A lot more happens in Atlantic City than one may think. Sure, there's gambling, winning and losing, but in Please See Us, there's also a serial murderer. The thing is, no one knows. Young women, some sex workers, are silently being killed and dumped together behind the Sunset Motel.

After a painful and embarrassing breakup, Lily moves back home to AC and gets a job at the spa of one of the casinos/hotels. On her first day of work, in strolls Des and Clara/Ava, women who own a shop in town offering psychic readings and tarot card sessions. While Des doesn't have "the gift" Clara does, and she's beginning to see and feel disturbing things, possibly messages from one of the missing girls in town. Together Clara and Lily look into the increasing disappearances of the women to track down those who may be next.

Please See Us is Caitlin Mullen's debut novel, which I enjoyed. That being said, I personally, had a hard time staying focused at some points. I'm the type of reader that likes to read a few chapters each night before bed, but the chapters of this book sometimes took 30+ minutes to read. So each night I was getting a very small part of the overall story. That was especially difficult, as each chapter jumps to be from a different view point. It was a little hard to follow and make connections between nights reading.

For a debut novel, this was a good effort and I'd likely still pick up the next. The only thing I would probably change is the setting in which I read it. I would need to be able to read more chapters at once if they were that long and would likely not be the best before bed book to consider.

For me I had some issues with this stories, it was confusing as to whether it is in the past or the now. Based on the hotels mentioned it could be either or. I thought the suspense of the story was well written, I also liked the main characters, but to me there was a lot of things that did not fit.
In my opinion this book had too much going on.


** I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review**

This was a very deep dive into the depths of two women's psyches. Clara Voyant (AKA Ava) is a young woman who runs a psychic shop on the dying Atlantic City boardwalk, along with her aunt, who have raised her since her mother left. Lily has retreated to Atlantic City after a spectacular blow up with artist boyfriend in Manhattan. She is working as a receptionist at a day spa. Ava really is a little psychic and she begins to see snatches of lives of women who have been murdered, including a girl whose uncle comes to her for a reading. The reader sees these snatches, along with Ava. And they all end up lying in a marsh near the boardwalk. This is not your typical psychological thriller, but it was an interesting examination of the interior lives of Ava and Lily.

I enjoyed reading this one. Looking forward to reading more from this author. I recommend it to others.

*3.5 stars

This was a story that took me a while to digest and appreciate. At first, I rated it lower - but I've settled on 3.5 stars as time has gone by. This was unlike anything I've read before and I can't wait to read more by Mullen!

Lily, embarrassed and ashamed by her boyfriend’s public betrayal, flees NYC for Atlantic City for a few months to heal and get her life back together. She meets Clara, a young scam artist who has the gift of a seer, living with her aunt after being abandoned by her mother. Clara confides in Lily that she she’s bad things happening to various women they’ve met on the boardwalk, and together they try to solve the puzzles brought forth in her visions before it’s too late.

I'm not sure exactly how I felt about this book. I didn't really relate to the characters or enjoy them, but I was curious to find out how it ended. The ending, however, was disappointing because I don't think it completed the story for me. It may be that this is the first in a series, with the story continuing, but I haven't seen that written anywhere yet.

Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen really had me creeped out and on the edge of my seat from the beginning. The books starts as a crazy serial killer is laying his victim's bodies out in the march, overlooking Atlantic City. The bodies are in varying degrees of decomposition, and all are women. Yikes! Meanwhile, Clara is a psychic living with her aunt, and they are always struggling to pay the rent and never seem to get ahead. She begins having really odd sensations after the uncle of a missing girl shows up for a reading, and it really starts to affect her. She meets Lily, a new girl reeling from a tragic event back home, who is trying to get a fresh start. Clara begins to think her visions and feelings are related to the string of missing women in town, and thinks that Lily might be able to help her figure out what's going on and help her determine what has happened to the girls. Will Lily and Clara figure out the truth, or will they become victims themselves?

This book had it all, mystery, suspense, and it was full of nail biting moments. I really felt for Clara, who's mom left her to chase her dreams in L.A., and Lily, who's trying to overcome an extremely tragic event in her past.

4 out of 5 stars for Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen. Thank you to NatGalley, the author, and Gallery, Pocket Books for the opportunity to read this book and provide my honest opinion.

This was a slow burn with solid execution! I loved the alternating chapters particularly the ones with the Janes (I just felt they were so compelling)! I love an unlikely alliances and I definitely didn’t see this story ending the way it did! Overall very grateful for the chance to read this one!

A darkly compelling, heartbreaking mystery thriller speaking to the tragic ends often met by women who slip through the cracks of the world.

Mullins’ noirish novel about a string of murders of sex workers and addicts in Atlantic City is a compelling mystery, and one with a message: What happens to the women who the world forgets about?

Protagonists Lily (back in town and looking to get back on her feet after an embarrassing incident ran her out of New York City) and Clara (a 16-year-old full time legitimate psychic, part-time thief and occasional sex worker) share their unique but intertwined perspectives on the murders quietly piling up in Atlantic City.

They’re complex, sympathetic characters whose lives have not gone the way that they once hoped, in part due to their own choices and somewhat due to circumstances beyond their control. Their flaws and humanity make them easy to root for, but also make them the perfect candidates to attempt to solve the mystery at hand. Only two forgotten girls would care enough about other forgotten girls to attempt to determine their fates.

While the outcome isn’t pretty and the ending frustratingly unsatisfying, the story moves well and evokes compassion from the reader. And credit to Mullins for her brilliant use of setting. Atlantic City itself acts as a character in the story, it’s seediness and bleakness providing the perfect backdrop for the book. It’s a place lost to time and decay, much like the women who disappear from it.

This is an impressive effort for a debut novel, and with it Mullins shows she’s much more than your average crime writer.

Trigger warning: Rape, murder, exploitation and torture of sex workers, including one who is underage (on page).

Intense and thoughtful thriller that I really liked a lot--it reminded me of Laura Lippman's best stand alone novels where who is doing what and why is just as important (if not more) than the crime in question. I look forward to Caitlin Mullen's next book!

This was a dark and eerie read, a compelling mystery and so unique. It is definitely a slow burn, but the writing is phenomenal and crime fiction lovers will appreciate this story.

We meet Clara, a psychic on the boardwalk in Atlantic City who is just trying to get by. Many business have been boarded up and many are struggling. On top of barely making ends meet, women have been disappearing in the area. Clara soon meets Lily, who has just returned to Atlantic City after a messy breakup with her boyfriend. Clara has been having disturbing visions of women, basically cries for help from them and soon realizes these women are among those who have recently gone missing. Clara enlists Lily with helping her find these women before they both leave this city for good.

I listened to this on audiobook through my Libby app and read on my kindle- with this particular book I think the physical book is the way to go because there’s a lot going on with the visions and multiple narrators. Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for this copy- this one was published on 3/3/20.

What a debut!

I have had such low expectations for psychological thrillers for a while, there's just so many of them now. But this was compelling, engaging, heart-wrenching, and all at a break-neck speed. It was great and fun to read. The writing was emotional and nuanced while also somehow maintaining a pace that kept me riveted to the page. I will definitely be telling people about this book and looking for more from this author.

I really struggled with this book. I gave it a few tries and even grabbed the audio (via Scribd) but just couldn't get into the story. Too many characters to keep straight and found the storyline hard to follow.

I wish I could have related more and got invested in this piece. I loved the setting and the character choices for this story, a tarot reader is always a fun add to a psychological mystery, but for some reason even with all the perfect ingredients this story didn't cook right for me.

The prostitution trigger might have just been a tipping point that had me check out. They seem to be used in everything recently as these throwaway, problem characters and it's getting offensive like when the unreliable character used to always be a female. The structure was a bit overplayed and not many new twists that had me wrapped up.

You know I love my mysteries! This was a fast-paced and well-plotted one, focusing on a teen and another young woman in Atlantic City who cross paths and also cross paths with a serial killer. Lily is trying to regroup after a break up but “Clara” is the character that I really liked: a teenage girl who has been deserted by her mother and who makes her living by reading fortunes. She actually does seem to have some sort of “gift”, but is basically taking advantage of people. I liked the character development in this story and the ending as well.

Recommended if you like mysteries. Thank you, Gallery Books, for my ARC through Net Galley!

This is getting rave reviews by those in the booksphere, but I just cannot get into it. I’ve started it 4 or 5 times and it just doesn’t jive with me.

Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen is thriller that will keep you at the edge of your seat! Told in interesting perspectives, readers will be captivated from start to finish. Clara is a struggling psychic who believes recent visions may be connected to the death of women in the area. Then she meets Lily, can she help Clara? Women are dying, but does anyone truly care? What is truly happening? The story was heartbreaking and focuses on the women in the story. Be ready for a thrilling ride full of surprising twists and turns!

Happy reading!