Psychics crack a case—in the first in the Fear trilogy, by Hooper (Haunting Rachel, 1998, etc.).
Samantha Burke is a fortuneteller who travels with a circus; Lucas Jordan works for the FBI’s elite Special Crime Unit. In different ways, they both read minds, though ESP hardly seems necessary to figure out this predictable plot. Ignoring the scoffers and naysayers, they join forces to find an elusive serial kidnapper and killer with a taste for slow torture and lingering death. After a frantic search through mineshafts and whatnot (where is Lassie when you need her?) and dithering over maps and motivation, Lucas and Sam arrive too late to save feisty young cop Lindsay Graham, who was left to drown in the killer’s lair. But why? Is ransom money the only thing the killer wants? Who’ll be next? Lindsay’s lover, Sheriff Wyatt Metcalf, is tied up to a nice, sharp guillotine to await his ghastly fate. And then Samantha disappears . . . .
Sluggish action, lukewarm gore, and a very familiar story, studded with what-if dialogue.
