Stealing Shadows

Kay Hooper
Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

A lot of people wonder what use psychics would be in police work. Kay Hooper explores the possibility of psychic talents, *real* psychic talents, helping detectives. How would they convince them that their powers were real? What could they do to help? And what are the consequences?

In Stealing Shadows, Kay Hooper's protagonist Cassie Neill has been helping police for years, submersing herself in killers' minds in an attempt to track them down before they kill again. However, she is traumatized enough by what she sees - and what she doesn't see in time - to leave that behind and move across the country in an attempt to escape her abilities. It goes without saying that she fails, and worse, that her past comes back to haunt her in a way that she was unable to foresee.

Hooper is smart enough to give her psychic protagonists more problems than benefits from their abilities. In Cassie's case, she is afraid that one day she will delve too deep and lose herself in the mind of a madman. The disbelief that she suffers in her longing to help only deepens the isolation that she feels. It's an interesting trap to get out of, and Hooper pulls it off believeably. If you don't mind a little fantasy in your mysteries, this is not a bad choice.

****/*****