How It Happened in Peach Hill

How it Happened in Peach Hill is a fiction novel written for teens by Marthe Jocelyn. The story is AbOUT a girl, Annie, and her "clairvoyent" mother who move from town to town swindling people of their money. The mother, the amazing Madame Caterina, uses her daughter to follow people around and listen in on their conversations to draw out secrets, posing as and idiot. Caterina then uses the common gossip the daughter has procured to "predict" the troubles that the person (usually a woman) is suffering. They arrive at Peach Hill where Annie decides she wants to be a normal girl with a normal life. When her mother begins to flirt with a supposedly wealthy man, Annie seizes the opportunity to have an episode and magically gain intelligence. The mother a daughter spend the book trying to out think each other's actions to get what they want: Caterina wanting money and a steady income of customers, Annie wanting to go to school, make friends, and impress the handsome Sammy Sloane. The story is set in 1924 in New York State.

ISBN 978-0375837012