It's 1925 and Alice is a psychologist who spends her time traveling around giving IQ tests to school children to identify those that need assistance. But what she finds in Gordon Bay, Oregon, is something quite unexpected. Janie O'Daire remembers things from a different time and place as if she's lived through these events. She remembers her sister and a life in Kansas. She remembers drowning.
Being a scientist, Alice cannot believe these stories. But the child is also a math genius, and as Alice begins to investigate, she can't overlook the facts. Janie is the reincarnated version of a girl named Violet. Being a female in a male profession is hard enough for Alice, but investigating a reincarnation is sure to ruin her professionally. But investigate she does. She and Alice's father and mother take Alice to Kansas to meet the person who was once her sister. All of Alice's feelings are confirmed, and she is convinced of Alice's reincarnation.
Alice herself has a somewhat cloudy past and as she begins to believe, she also wonders if some of the weird things she has experienced are because she is also reincarnated. The rest of the story follows Alice, assisted by Janie's father, as she investigates her own possible past life at a hotel called Yesternight.
Yesternight is well paced and kept my interest, as Winters always does. The resolution was unexpected and I'm not sure I liked it, but I guess it fit. Winters is a favorite author of mine, and I've read all of her books. Yesternight isn't my favorite, but I'll still look forward to reading her next creation.
Yesternight is an adult book (she's written for both teens and adults) and contains more sexual references than any of her other novels. I would only recommend this to mature teens.
Published by William Morrow, October 4, 2016
eARC obtained from Edelweiss
400 pages
Rating: 4/5
