The Women in White | Book Review

By Sarah Pekkanen

A Suspense-filled Parapsychology Research Story

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SUMMARY

In the 1960s, four young women at the esteemed Marquis University participated in a controversial parapsychology experiment led by a renowned researcher. Just as the group seemed to be making a breakthrough in extrasensory perception, all four women suddenly disappeared, and the program was abruptly terminated. Decades later, the mystery remains unsolved.

Today, Riley Bell, recently divorced and living out of her car, takes a live-in caretaker job for 81-year-old Betty Sadler, a wheelchair-bound widow. At Betty’s request, Riley uncovers clues that raise questions about what really happened to Betty’s three closest friends from the Marquis University experiments. As Riley helps Betty investigate, and as long-buried secrets come to light, they find that those four women may be in danger today.

The investigation of extrasensory perception at Duke University…included over ninety thousand trials

—Head of Duke Parapsychology Dr. J. B. Rhine

REVIEW

The Women in White is a suspense-filled novel that blends mystery and psychological suspense. The story told in a dual timeline was intriguing and tense.

I liked the story of Betty and Riley in the present day; both women were courageous and determined. The four women in the psychology experiments left me a little unsettled. Betty, Kathleen, Helen, and Ivy were characterized as gullible, mild-mannered, and weak in their interactions with renowned researcher Dr. Silas Trimble of the Trimball Institute at Marquis University. They would do anything he told them to do, even when it made them uncomfortable or, more importantly, unsafe.

While this story is fictional, Pekkanen drew inspiration based on real-world parapsychology studies at Duke University between 1930 and 1965. I appreciate the amount of research she has done to write this novel.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sarah Pekkanen, and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Publisher    St. Martin’s Press

Published   August 4, 2026

Review       www.bluestockingreviews.com