A car accident killed Nicole, a sweet, pretty and popular
sorority sister but the reported circumstances of her death
vary. A newspaper account mentions lots of blood, a fire and
an unrecognizable body, but Shelley Lockes, the first person
on the scene, saw something very different. Except no one
wants to hear Shelley's story, not the police and not the
papers. So begins THE RAISING, an enjoyable, suspense-filled
novel from Laura Kasischke. Craig, Nicole's
boyfriend at the time and the driver of the car, has come
back to the college although many have requested he not be
allowed and insist he's a murderer. Craig himself
remembers very little of that night.
Craig moves in with his former roommate, Perry, who grew
up in the same town as Nicole. Perry has had glimpses of
Nicole on campus, and that along with a fascination with
death prompts him to take Mira's course on the subject.
And Josie, Nicole's freshman roommate and sorority sister,
works for Shelley at the office for the Chamber Music
orchestra. All of their lives intertwine and all are
impacted as more calls, sightings and cards from Nicole
materialize... And they all want to know what happened that
fateful night.
The accident was tragic, yes. Bloody and horrific and
claiming the life of a beautiful young sorority girl.
NICOLE was a straight A student from a small town. Sweet-
tempered, all-American, a fomer Girl Scout, and a virgin.
But it was an accident. And that was last year. It’s fall
again, a new semester, a fresh start.
CRAIG, who has not been charged with murder, is focusing
on his classes, and also on avoiding Nicole’s sorority
sisters, who seem to blame him for her death even though
the police did not.
PERRY, Craig’s roommate, is working through his own grief
(he grew up with Nicole, after all, and had known her
since kindergarten) by auditing Professor Polson’s
sociology class: Death, Dying, and the Undead.
MIRA has been so busy with her babies—two of them, twins,
the most perfect boys you could imagine, but still a
nearly impossible amount of work even with Clark’s help—
that she can barely keep herself together to teach (Death,
Dying and the Undead), let alone write the book she'll
need to publish for tenure.
And SHELLY, who was the first person at the scene of the
accident, has given up calling the newspapers to tell them
that, despite the "lake of blood" in which they keep
reporting the victim was found, the girl Shelly saw that
night was not bloody, and not dead
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