Saturday, October 25, 2008

Deadly Vision By Rick Reed


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Reviewed by Lori L. Lake for the Midwest Book Review


Cass D’Angelo lives a regular life in small town, Ohio, with her seven-year-old son, Max. She works at a popular diner and has little unusual going on in her life except, initially, the lack of a girlfriend. Her whole life changes, however, after being struck on the head during a storm. When she wakes up in the hospital, she discovers that she’s acquired psychic powers, specifically the ability to visualize the grisly deaths of local girls who have recently begun disappearing.

The killers are an insane, but handsome, psychopath and his smitten and spectacularly confused girlfriend. We find out very quickly that they worship a devil-like entity, “The Beast,” and when they discover that Cass has directed the police to unearth one of their victims, they go after her and her family.

Like Charlaine Harris’s Harper Connelly character, Cass D’Angelo is a psychic character who’s fascinating to read about. She’s thoughtful, smart, and capable. Unlike Harris’s character, who travels around to use her gift, Cass is mostly happy and settled in her Ohio home and committed to family, friends, and her community. That makes her deadly visions and horror over the sick murders even more palpable. Everyone is at risk, even her own son.

Reed gives us alternate chapters from the perspective of the twisted killer’s girlfriend and of our increasingly-stressed heroine. His secondary characters, particularly Cass’s mother and Cass’s journalist girlfriend, are lively, interesting, and essential. His use of tone, pacing, and atmosphere is masterful. A natural born storyteller, this author does an excellent job showing Cass’s increasing panic in the face of the killers’ single-minded murderous intent. With every page, the reader’s tension level rises until the wild climax. At times graphic, always descriptive, and endlessly suspenseful, this novel takes you on a rocky ride through horror and anxiety. Will the killers be thwarted? Will Cass live to see another vision? Will she lose the one she loves the most?

Highly recommended for all who enjoy heart-pounding suspense, horror, and good old-fashioned fright within an expertly constructed narrative.


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