Touching Evil: A Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Novel
The first installment of Hooper's "Evil" series capitalizes on  the popularity of her gothic "Shadows" thrillers (Out of the  Shadows; Stealing Shadows) but will disappoint readers who are  longing for more than a simple retelling of a familiar plot.  When two seers, an empath and a ghost join forces to rid Seattle  of a monster, two predictable things occur: the characters spend  more time trying to convince skeptics of their powers than  solving the case, and the heroine, Maggie Barnes, becomes one of  the fiend's next targets. Maggie is a talented police sketch  artist and a troubled empath. Although her ability to experience  another's pain enables her to sketch an uncanny likeness of a  perpetrator's face, she's unable to draw the face of a rapist  who removes his victims' eyes, wears a mask and covers his  natural odor with Ivory soap. Frustrated by the police's lack of  progress, John Garrett, the wealthy and well-connected brother  of one of the victims, recruits two FBI agents who possess  special psychic abilities. The lack of communication between the  police, John's team and Maggie is frustrating, and for all the  novel's buildup, the final unmasking of evil is anticlimactic. A  romantic interlude between Maggie and John lends the story a  degree of warmth, but not enough to lift this paranormal  thriller above the tepid. (Aug. 28) Forecast: National radio and print advertising will buoy the  sales of this lackluster title, but it won't match the success  of Hooper's acclaimed Shadows series.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.