18 SECONDS

Debut suspenser about a blind psychic who sees what no one else can.

Her name is Sherry Moore, and if she holds the hand of a murder victim, she can, as she puts it, “tap in to the short term memory of the deceased.” It's the last 18 seconds’ worth, so in practical terms—that is, in cop terms—if you get her next to your vic, she may be able to i.d. your perp. Her powers are the result of a freak childhood head injury that also left her handicapped. Now the extraordinarily beautiful Sherry has become something of a media darling. In the meantime, Lt. Kelly O'Shaughnessy of the Wildwood (NJ) PD has a big-time bad guy on her hands. Earl Sykes was in his youth collared by Kelly's father, then Wildwood's police chief, after a wild car chase that resulted in multiple deaths and a second-degree murder conviction. But Sykes is also guilty of a series of ghastly sex crimes, crimes that more closely define the kind of sociopath he is, crimes never laid at his door. Now, smoldering, vengeful and paroled, he's a man obsessed. All those betrayers who did him harm must be made to pay. And if papa O'Shaughnessy breathes no more, his daughter must serve as stand-in. Mad-hatter Sykes litters Wildwood with corpses. Sherry finds herself called in as a consultant, setting the stage for a triangulated showdown under Wildwood's boardwalk.

Shuman’s pair of fresh and appealing female lead characters just may warrant that 100,000-copy first printing.