A Grave Prediction
A Psychic Eye Mystery, Book #14
By Victoria Laurie
ISBN 9780451473882
Author’s website: www.victorialaurie.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
In Victoria Laurie’s new Psychic Eye mystery, Abby Cooper learns that following the money often leads to murder . . .
Professional psychics learn to deal with skeptics, but Abby has to prepare herself for one steep uphill battle when she’s sent to Los Angeles to help train FBI officers to use their intuition. Her first challenge: a series of bank robberies in which the thieves made off with loads of cash but left no clues.
Abby’s sixth sense leads her team to a tract of land recently cleared for development. But instead of finding clues to the cash, Abby gets a vision of four buried bodies. A site search turns up some bones and pottery from an American Indian tribe, but that’s still enough to delay construction for years.
With a furious developer and dubious FBI agents on her back, Abby is losing credibility fast. But unlike the best laid plans, Abby’s talent rarely leads her astray. And if the bodies aren’t there yet, that means that four deaths can still be stopped. She’ll just have to dig a little deeper . . .
Review:
A Grave Prediction is only the second of fourteen mysteries in the series that I’ve read, and I definitely enjoy Abby’s wit and escapades and appreciate her work, even if I am kind of a … uh … skeptic. This is offering number 14 of the Psychic Eye Mystery series and it can be read as a stand-alone mystery.
Abby is on the road again with her best bud and partner in crime-solving, Candice. The FBI group in Los Angeles is not delighted with the recommendation received from the Austin, Texas office who hires Abby as a consultant. She will teach the agents in L.A. how to use their intuition when working cases. It was also recommended that they seek her help with cold or challenging cases. Candice didn’t want her bestie to go into the atmosphere of skepticism by herself, so she surprised Abby at the airport, packed bag and ticket in hand. Their husbands would be left behind in the Austin office while Abby would WOW the agents in L.A. with her psychic abilities.
Not only were the agents skeptical, they were hostile, especially those she called out for giving her fake cases with a side of snarky. Oopsie, first error. The real case she was presented with had interesting components. Agent Hart invited Abby the next day to go with her and other agents as they executed a search warrant on a huge, ultra-luxury mansion where they suspected a ring of high-dollar art thieves and fencing. They found a reason to get a warrant to look at the books, and hoped that Abby could help them find the home’s hidden wine cellar.
The case that Abby was invited to study afterwards was a series of robberies at several branches of the same bank. Abby and Candice went to the branches; they could find some weak spots in the security or lack thereof in each branch. Abby followed the instincts that drove her. She ‘saw’ four young women buried on a new development within view of the bank. Big oopsie! When the digging began, the bones discovered were that of a Native American who had been buried for many years, shutting down the work. That hasn’t happened before, and Abby was very concerned as she knew there was more involved than the bank robberies.
Abby and Candice are extremely well-described. Their husbands, Dutch and Brice, are well defined but not as much as their brides. Agent Hart was defined more than the other agents.
She is someone I would like to see in an upcoming mystery should Abby travel again for the FBI. Abby is a strong protagonist most of the time; when she falters, it is either Dutch or Candice who help keep her from falling. One ‘fun’ thing this time is Candice working on Abby to eat healthier and exercise. I’m not sure that we would still be BFF’s had it been me in the hotel room with Candice! Eating healthy wouldn’t be quite so bad if one could have chocolate or sweet potato fries once in a while. But to get up in the middle of the night to jog or work out? The temptation to feel as wonderful as Abby when she realized the endorphins kicked in was tempting…but I’ll leave the jogging to Candice! I also found it interesting to read some of the revelations Abby’s friend gave her regarding some of her actions and reactions. Good stuff.
The plot was uniquely crafted in such a way that this reader was puzzling over early on. The bank robberies lent themselves to varied theories based on how they were conducted, but who the real bad guy(s)/ gal(s) might be were fascinating as I ‘watched’ Abby and Candice work through the clues. I enjoyed the LOL humor; the author is adept at mixing the serious with the seriously funny. I enjoyed this mystery from beginning to end, finding it hard to put down for anything. The end came much too soon, and was almost a total surprise! The tension from the over-the-top scenes of suspense was worth riding the tilt-a-whirl to the end of the mystery.
I highly recommend A Grave Prediction to those who appreciate paranormal cozy mysteries that are very well written and include humor. I might suggest that if a reader is sensitive to four-letter words, to be aware that there are more instances than traditional cozy mysteries. *
