A Vision of Murder (Psychic Eye Mysteries, Book 3) by Victoria Laurie

As I finish the third book in the series I'm still enjoying the series as a whole, but I didn't like this book as much as I liked the previous two.

The premise of this book has Abby going into business with her handyman Dave and her sister Cat. The three agree to form a business to buy houses and let Dave fix them up and then sell them for a profit. They buy the first house and it turns out to be haunted. Not just eeery-noises-haunted, but power-tools-flying-towards-your-face-haunted. The way to un-haunt a house is to learn the story and solve whatever issues the dead people had so said dead people can move on to The Other Side.

Which means they have to solve a mystery that started back in World War II.

The plot has plenty of twists and turns and even though I knew who the current-day bad guy was from fairly early in the book, the historic part of the story that told us what everyone was after didn't surface until closer to the end, so there was still a mystery that kept me reading later than I'd planned to stay up.

It's not the plot that I had a problem with. It's the relationship stuff I had a problem with. Abby and Dutch acted like two whiny-assed kids through a good part of the book and it seriously got on my nerves. And even if there were injuries, what is this with going to bed and going right to sleep? And then when there is finally some good stuff, we get a single paragraph that it was good and everything fit? Please. It doesn't have to dip into erotica to give us some details, and that was a pretty crappy way to handle that after the tease of the shower scene earlier. (Select the spoiler text to view it.)

So, the plot gets a thumbs up but the romance portion gets a thumbs down. I like Abby and Dutch in every way except the way they handle their relationship with each other. I hope they grow up between this book and the next. And I will be reading the next book to see if they do or not.

I gave the first two books in this series an 8 out of 10 but this one gets a 6 out of 10. And that brings the series down to a 7 out of 10. The series rating is not an average of the individual books, it's an overall view of how I see the series, and the relationship kiddy stuff in this book annoyed me enough to bring it down to a 7.

I love the premise of the psychic who works with law enforcement, and of the FBI agent forced to accept the supernatural when he falls in love with an actual psychic. But no more hiding keys or hitting potholes on purpose, please. I want them to have an adult relationship, not something out of high school.

Book Rating 6 of 10
Series Rating 7 of 10






Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye
Better Read Than Dead
A Vision of Murder
Killer Insight
Crime Seen
Death Perception