Review: Awesome Read - Hooked from the beginning
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 18, 2012
After speeding through what's currently available in the Psycop series, starting with #1, Among the Living, I find myself now dazed, winded, and wondering what life was like before I found these books. What did food taste like before Psycop? Was the sky always that color blue? How did I get this far in life without reading Victor's awesome voice before?Among the Living is the first part of Victor Bayne's story--a cop in a world where psychic abilities exist, and his talent, the ability to see and talk with ghosts, makes him an ideal pick for the Chicago police department, since being able to talk with a victim, even one that is deceased, can be a big help in catching criminals.But Victor's life isn't a shiny disco ball of psychic awesome--Casper the friendly ghost is a lie. The ghosts that can communicate are normally cranky or freaky and the ones that can't talk are horrifically redundant, repeating their last moments over and over. And the only way for Victor to turn off the angry voices of the dead is to scrape together a cocktail of both legit and illegal pharmaceuticals, and then ride out the haze.But there are some things he can't escape from with drugs, and that includes dealing with a new partner as well as tracking down a serial killer who is somehow murdering his victims so completely, there isn't a shred of ghost left behind. All that, and suddenly he finds himself on the radar of fellow cop Jacob Marks, a sexy mountain of a man who doesn't at all seem freaked out by Victor's abilities.There's a lot I love about this series, and Victor's voice, at times acerbic, other times floundering, is one of my favorites. His POV is incredibly realized, and it invokes such immediacy that you really feel you're in the story, walking the streets with him, finding out too late that his new SaverPlus sport coat has yet another food stain on it.But one of the things I love about Victor was that even when he is snarky, you still sense that underlying vulnerability of someone who doesn't think anyone will really understand what he sees (or if they did, would want to stick around with him.) It's that vulnerability that makes Victor's surprise about Jacob forcibly sliding into his life all the more palpable and meaningful.The author does an excellent job with characters in general and you can really hear each distinct voice--from Victor to his new partner Lisa, to Jacob and his psycop partner Carolyn, to even Jackie, the dead prostitute who saunters outside Victor's apartment building, ready to rant in his face about the John who did her in. The dialogue is aces, and the characters feel very developed and real.And the mystery is also engaging, but what you're really getting here is the beginning of a much bigger story--Victor's life, his relationships, and his ability, how he develops his ability and how that ability is sought after. After flying through this first novella, then hitting the next volume Criss Cross, and then going through the rest of the series (now at six volumes, and still going), all I can say is that this is an excellent ride. If you like this volume, you are in for a real treat with the others because it just gets better and more developed with each installment. (And longer, which is awesome.)The author has put up the first half of this book on her Psycop site for free to read, so if you want a bigger taste, you can check it out there.All I can say is "Enjoy!" and maybe afterwards, you'll be like me, dazedly wondering what the world was like before reading this series. Was the sun always that bright?