Curse of Salem - a Bishop / Special Crimes Unit Novel

Kay Hooper is definitely back in true form with the second book in the Salem trilogy (at least, I'm assuming this is a trilogy - I haven't seen any solicit or information about a third book in this series yet, but since all previous books in the Bishop / Special Crimes Unit series were trilogies, I have to believe this one will be as well!).  While that final book in the Bishop Files trilogy had left me wondering, with this book, I wonder no more.  Noah Bishop and his group of psychic federal agents in the Special Crimes Unit are back in action and most definitely back in their element as they return to Salem, North Carolina to face another deadly threat - this one even more evil and more vicious than the last.

Curse of Salem takes place just a couple of months after the events of Hidden Salem.  After the defeat of Duncan Cavendish, the townsfolk of Salem thought the nightmare was over.  But for a town filled with psychics, can the nightmare ever truly be over?  When Hollis and Diana have a shared vision in the grey world with a warning of something to come in Salem, Bishop can't ignore it.  And when Sheriff Finn Deverell calls Bishop to tell him that a head of one of the Five in Salem has come to him with a warning, it pretty much clenches the SCU's involvement.  Something bad - VERY bad - is coming to Salem, and for the first time, Bishop's team might actually have a chance to stop it before it begins.

If only it were that easy...

Hooper continues her return to the roots of her psychic crime unit series with a violent tale of a psychic killer that has a personal agenda.  And staying under the radar in Salem, a town made up of five psychic families, where most of the population have psychic abilities on some level, is no mean feat.  But Hooper introduces a new element into the mix - because there is a static that seems to have washed over the town, something that is preventing Bishop's team - as well as the families already in Salem - from utilizing their abilities to warn them of danger.  And when a vision reveals that the killer has not only killed one victim, but has another one that is being tortured, the SCU realizes they did not arrive as early as they had hoped.  But how did the killer take people without anyone noticing?  And how did a small town such as Salem not realize that one ... now TWO ... of their own were missing?

The suspense builds pretty quickly in this book, as the urgency to find the kidnapped victims grows with each turn of the page.  And the gruesome manner in which the killer tortures and kills one of his victims - and what the SCU team finds! - is so horrific, I think this is likely one of the absolute worst murders in the entire series.  And Hooper's ability to make that death have such a huge impact on the reader, not just in terms of its gruesome nature, but in the fact that the victim was innocent - was someone people in the town cared about - and was someone that did not want to die, but still had to suffer what this killer did - well, it goes to Hooper's talented writing skills.  To make the reader care about a character that we barely even know, and to feel the punch to the gut when Hollis, Diana, Reese, Quentin, Bishop, and Miranda, along with Finn and Nelle, find the body (or rather, what's left of it), it speaks volumes of Hooper's ability as a writer.

As with prior books in this series, some of the SCU members find they are developing (or coming into) new abilities. In this one, Hollis discovers she can do more than she ever thought, and the final showdown with the killer utilizes these new talents to lead to a very satisfying conclusion.  Of course, we know this is not the end, as there should be one more book in this trilogy (anxiously waiting on word about when the next book will be coming out!), and it makes me wonder just how much more violence and terror the poor town of Salem can suffer before it is completely destroyed?

 

And I will concede that I thought I had Diana's spirit guide all figured out - I thought for sure I knew who it was; but Hooper put in a final twist that was not what I was expecting.  Which is a good thing, as it keeps on my toes and keeps me from getting too comfortable in thinking I can figure these things out.

There is one scene in this book that truly made me smile, as it has such truth to it!  As Hollis is discussing the crows that are a mainstay of Salem, she wonders about their connection to the people and how they interact. "I wonder if they make exceptions for friends," she speculates (p. 123.)  "Cats don't.  Then again, I've never been entirely sure cats would be bothered enough to make that sort of distinction.  Dogs have master, cats have staff." (p. 124)  Have grown up with both cats and dogs, and having been a cat-lover all of my life, there is no truer statement than what Hollis says here - dogs serve people, but people serve cats!

RATING:  10 half-eaten jelly donuts out of 10 for keeping this series alive with a darker villain and some surprising twists in the world of psychic feds!