Haunted - a Bishop / Special Crimes Unit Novel

Tech week and opening weekend for the play I am in ("As Is," by William Hoffman) put me a bit behind in my reading - but my love of Kay Hooper books kept me opening her latest paperback every free chance I had until I finished it!

Kay Hooper is one of those authors whose books I fell in love with from the very first one I read (along with Jim Butcher and Sue Ann Jaffarian).  Her stories center around a very elite group of FBI specialists, all of whom have psychic powers of some sort and are led by the very enigmatic Noah Bishop.  They are usually told in trilogies (this book being the third of the most recent trilogy that began with Haven and Hostage), and each book introduces new psychics into the group.  (Of course, stopping to think about it, at the rater they are going, they will eventually discovery that every person in the United States is psychic!)

The books deal with very dark evil, and this one is no different.  Haunted not only takes readers to

the small Georgia town of Sociable, but it brings back Hollis Templeton and Reese DeMarco, two of my favorite agents.  This book also introduces a unique dog by the name of Braden, who Ms. Hooper took from a real-life dog that was given a second chance when rescued from a shelter.  

As always, Hooper weaves a very intricate tale, giving us a glimpse of things through the killer's eyes and mind without ever truly revealing the identity until the end.  There are also some grizzly murders, sometimes killing characters I really don't want to see get killed (such as Toby Gilmore, who I thought would have made a very cool ongoing character for this series!).  There is plenty of suspense and build up, and Hooper knows how to keep her tales engaging.  Every book is fresh, no repeated plots or weak stories, and it's always hard to put down one of her books.  At 311 pages, it was a breeze to get through this (when I had the chance here and there to actually sit down and read!), not because the story was simple or the writing was childish, but because the characters come alive and the tale grips you so much you want to know what's going to happen, how are they going to catch the killer, and who is it!?!

At the end of this tale, it seems there won't be any new additions to the Special Crimes Unit, even though a couple of new psychics are introduced (including one with telekinesis - which definitely would give the team an edge in their cases).

Now, to sit back and wait another year until the first book in the next trilogy comes out, Fear the Dark.

RATING:  10 bleeding houses out of 10 for maintaining the suspense and mystery that I love about these books!