Review: I really enjoyed the first PsyCop story, but I couldn't get into this one.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2012
CRISS CROSS (PsyCop #2) by Jordan Castillo Price.Vic has too many wimpy characteristics.  He always wants to get high.  He takes double doses of his medicine and other drugs to feel better.  Much of the time he is incompetent because he is in a haze.  You'd think that since he's been seeing ghosts for most of his life, he'd be used to it and have ways to deal with it.  But no, he's freaking out all the time trying to run away from every ghost he sees.  The reason he's a psycop is because he can talk to ghosts.  I was disappointed that he didn't use that skill in either of the first two books.  But to be fair he does talk to one or two ghosts briefly in each book - but not related to solving a case.Second, in addition to running away from ghosts, he runs away from people - his friends, his acquaintances, his lover.  He buys crystals to help him with a problem, but then he runs away from the guy without knowing how to use them.  Later he must return to the guy to ask how to use the crystals.  A ghost tells him how (which may or may not be true), so Vic runs away from the guy again without getting instructions.  When others ask Vic how things are, he lies and says fine so they will go away and leave him alone.  This did not interest me.  It frustrated me.  Experts say "don't write about wimps."  I agree.  Vic is a wimp.Vic leaves his phone turned off, so when friends try to reach him, they can't.  He intends to tell Jacob (his lover) about a problem, but he wimps out and doesn't tell him.  When Jacob starts to talk about something, Vic says "Do we have to talk about it right this second?"  Again, running away.Later when some bad guys are caught and the cops are asking Vic for details, Vic doesn't tell them that the bad guys have other safe houses.  I did not like his reason.  Some might say the reason was stupid.  Others might say he had a believable motive for keeping the secret, but he didn't act on it.  So his lying to the cops was for nothing.I really liked the relationship with Jacob.  It's hot.  Jacob is so intense and into Vic.  It's too bad the surrounding story was weak.DATA:Narrative mode: first person Vic.  Kindle count story length: 2078 (314 KB).  Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words.  Sexual language: moderate.  Number of sex scenes: 3, including rear door activity.  Setting: current day mostly Chicago, Illinois.  Copyright: 2006.  Genre: erotic gay male paranormal romance.