A powerful
psychic vision is always a great way to start a story with a solid punch of
imagery. Enter our scatty, redheaded heroine Kate, who is testing her psychic
abilities in a parapsychology group. Her intensely strong and graphic vision
from touching the victim's sweatband, places her in the throes of being
strangled ; but not clearly enough to see the killer's face. So begins the race
to connect the dots and put a face to the killer.
The
characters are generally well written and easy to relate to. Kate is a portrait
photographer who experiences tinges of psychic ability. Her best friend Venice
is a clairvoyant with a flair for the dramatic-whether in her appearance or
theatrical presentation. John is a newspaper reporter determined to print the
truth and potential love interest for Kate. Rounding out the whodunnit are the
head of the parapsychology class, a helpful detective and other sideline
characters that are woven into the story.
So here you
have the basics of a good mystery. Unfortunately a number of things interfere
with making this a well rounded story. Spoiler alert- the lack of
cell phones by the characters was not a believable part of the story-the
leaving of messages and people not being home to answer the phone raised
serious flags. Helmut's supposed red herring part in the murder was obvious and
unnecessary. The killer was evident from very early on in the story and yet so
little of the story was actually dedicated to him. His quick release after being
arrested on the minimum of charges seemed legally unrealistic. The description of her house with so much
glass still intact in the neighbourhood she lived in was also very suspect.
I will give
props for the editing though-no blindingly apparent mistakes. If you wanted a
light read without having to think too much this is a bit of fun for the day.
As soon as you start looking deeply into it however, certain behaviours and
instances start grating at your consciousness. Not a bad book but definitely
one I was not engrossed in.
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