BELIEVING

Seventeen-year-old Calla continues to cope with the loss of her mother and with her own burgeoning clairvoyant powers in this fast-paced second series entry (Awakening, 2007). The opening scene chills readers when a nameless girl is lured into the car of a psychopath. Staub then turns to an occasionally awkward present-tense narration of Calla’s life in Lily Dale, N.Y., over a period of 13 days. Problems in school and Calla’s attraction to two very different boys alternate with doubts about her mother’s death and repeated visions of a murder victim whose body Calla was instrumental in locating. Characterization is brisk and the background action is predictable. However, scenes that reveal the serial killer’s thoughts and actions ratchet up the suspense, and the fate of the girl abducted at the start is guaranteed to garner interest. Although the killer is stopped in the final pages, readers will have to wait for the next installment to find out what really happened to Calla’s mom—as well as which of the boys she’ll wind up dating. Facile but compelling. (Fiction. YA)