The Supernatural Enhancements

An inheritance from a reclusive cousin brings 23-year-old student A. Wells and mute adolescent Niamh Connell from Europe to the Virginia countryside of 1995, where a missing butler, complex encryptions, and enigmatic letters hint at sinister doings. Catalan author Cantero (Valvi) employs visits with inquisitive neighbors, isolated high voltage readings, and increasingly frightening dreams and manifestations to suggest the presence of supernatural elements, although many of these events evoke stock haunted-house props. A.’s musings about the nature of the supernatural provide a rationale for Cantero’s title: the mysteries of existence remain, no matter how one tries to explain the inexplicable. The merging of the otherworldly and the mundane, however, breaks down when a long explanation of a secret society’s aims and history overwhelms the plot and paves the way to a deus ex machina conclusion. (Aug.)