THE ASTRAL TRAVELER'S DAUGHTER

A budding psychic expands her powers and searches for the truth about her past in this sequel to A School for Psychics (2018).

Twenty-something Teddy Cannon is beginning her sophomore year at Whitfield Institute for Law Enforcement Training and Development. This isolated school on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay does more than train the next generation of elite government operatives: It recruits the most talented psychics from across the country and teaches them to hone their powers for top-level jobs in the FBI, Secret Service, and elsewhere. Teddy has spent the summer researching a terrorist group of rival psychics known as the Patriot Corps, which she thinks might be involved in deadly acts of violence around the world. The “good guys” at Whitfield, who include her mentor, Clint, her sometime-lover, Pyro, her roommate Jillian, and her best friend, Dara, want to stop the PC at all costs. But what if the rumors are true—that Teddy’s birthparents, whom she presumed dead, are connected to the mysterious and nefarious group? A pendant that belonged to her mother helps Teddy discover a new skill—astral travel—and this necklace may be the key to finding out how and why Teddy’s family seemingly failed to use their powers for good. Where the first book in the series wobbled between genres, with one foot in a supernatural YA-style boarding school drama and the other in thriller, Archer has found better footing here, aiming for a fast-paced Mission Impossible–esque story with an otherworldly flair. (Think out-of-body experiences and mind-reading plus explosions.) However, the many storylines this time around will make the most sense to those who’ve started with Book 1.

Readers who can relax into the tangle of plots will find this a breezy, suspenseful read.