Committed to an insane asylum, Violet Humphrey is isolated on the Illinois prairie with only her own thoughts and a persistent new voice in her head for company. When she is accused of murder, Violet suspects her road to both freedom and recovery lies through confronting her painful past and solving the crime. Magically summoned, Sean Joye skids through an ice storm to help Violet, but can they catch the killer and defy an eldritch horror before Violet loses her tenuous grasp on reality? Read The Talking Cure today to find out.
Barnes and Noble paperback link
“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.” —Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker
Read More About The Talking Cure
Literary Underworld Genre Blog
Literary Underworld Character Blog
The Storytelling Blog: Setting
The Storytelling Blog: The Talking Cure: An Excerpt
The Storytelling Blog: An Interview with Sean Joye
Endorsements
“Ms Brown evokes the time and place with terse, vivid prose, and creates characters who stride confidently across the pages to places we never expected.” —Daniel Boyd, Spur Award Winner for AESOP’S TRAVELS
“…Kathy L. Brown blurs the lines of magic and madness. Is there more to this world than can be known by our five senses?” —Fedora Amis, Mayhaven Fiction Prize Winner for Jack the Ripper in St. Louis.
“A spellbinding tale, The Talking Cure unfolds through the unreliable eyes of a woman with missing memories and the man who’s been trapped in her forgotten magic. Brown’s whimsical imagination and grounded storytelling have plotted a truly mysterious whodunit!” —Mira Gibson, author of Who Killed Leeanne?
“Kathy Brown delivers some insanely spellbinding pulp… filling her roiling cauldron with all the magick, noir grit, and historic drag to create a modern alchemical tincture worthy of the finest enchanted hip flask.” —Paul d Miller, author of Albrecht Drue, ghostpuncher.; Albrecht Drue: Paranormal Dick; and the forthcoming Albrecht Drue in… Aldaemonium!
“…an exceptional blend, an absorbing historical whodunnit built on a rich foundation of magical lore. The mystery, where ‘every witness is a suspect,’ unfolds as precisely as clockwork, while grimoires, cantrips, and fae add enormously to its eerie power. The intrigue is deepened by the unusual setting, an asylum in the uncertain early days of psychiatry, as not one but two detectives probe its secrets and unearth the fraught links between madness and magic. In the end, the disparate threads come together into a heady, satisfying whole that leaves the reader enchanted—in every sense.” —Damian Tarnopolsky, author of Every Night I Dream I’m a Monk, Every Night I Dream I’m a Monster
This webpage was last updated on November 24, 2025.