PsyCop: Partners

I wasn't expecting much and I was very pleasantly surprised - this is a really good book. Made of two novellas that directly follow each other time wise, Psycop has a great premise, good characters and is well written. Set into today's world, except that psychic ability is accepted, measured and harnessed, Victor Bayne is a kind of cop - the kind the dead talk to, which makes solving murders so much easier! . Told in first person by Victor, a level 5 medium, it's both witty and sad. Victor has trouble existing in the real world, even with people acknowledging his abilities, for the dead take up a lot of his time and even more of his energy. His difficult youth has lead him to be secretive and aloof. So when the 'perfect' Jacob makes a show more pass, Victor can't believe his luck or trust in Jacob's intentions.

Criss Cross, the second Novella picks up where Among the Living left off. Our understanding of Victor and his difficulties deepen. Our love for Jacob grows, and my interest in this world, so easily flowing and easy to enter into, means that I immediately order the next two books from Amazon. An engaging cop book with a tender love story (gay) and explicit sex. A happy find. show less

Victor is feeling a bit down. His "stiff" (i.e. non-psychic) partner in law enforcement is retiring leaving him to temporarily face his ghosts alone...literally. Victor is gifted (or in his opinion cursed) with the ability to communicate with the dead. A belief in the "6th sense" by people in power has led them to utilize their talents by hooking psychics up with traditionally trained cops to take a bite out of crime. When the newest case to come down the pike has a murderer targeting homosexual men Vic starts feeling a bit victimized himself. However, this is mitigated by the fact that he has been assigned to work with Jacob Marks, the hottest detective on the force who also seems to have the hots for Vic. Could this be the start of a show more beautiful (and did I mention hot?) new partnership both under the covers and above?

This was a very fun book to read. Vic is a great hero and one that is completely flawed. No self-esteem, check...drug addict, check...a little over the top over-reactive, triple check. I couldn't help but like him :-) I did think that the relationship between Vic and Jacob started off a little, or actually a lot, rushed but it evened out nicely. I'd love to see a bit more into Jacob's reasoning for coming on to Vic in the first place. I get the feeling it wasn't really as spur of the moment on his part as it seemed. I additionally liked the supporting characters of Lisa and Carolyn and thought they added a lot to the story. The two short stories in this book were both interesting. Although it is erotica there is a definite storyline and exciting crime solving. Certainly if you like crime solving urban fantasy mysteries and don't mind gay erotica mixed in I'd suggest this book. show less

Among the Living
I am a total sucker for M/M cop stories. I just am. I admit it. And I found Vic and Jacob a wonderful combo—one so willing to pursue and one barely keeping up with the idea of being pursed, but not resisting either.

I also liked that the language was real and not glossed for PCness. How do I express this? At one point, for example, Vic states that a room was full of black boys. But as a reader you understood that this was nothing more than a physical description of the people inhabiting the room. There was no judgement inherent in it or slight intended and thus Vic could skirt the 'is it PC to say this' question. It got around the overly scrutinized way many Americans' sphincter clenches in fear every-time someone show more dares describe a racial minority. (Please don't get me wrong, in the same way I appreciated the book's frankness, I don't mean to trivialize or demean the very real stresses that still exist in America. But after several years living abroad, I've come to appreciate that not only our utter inability to even talk about the subject, but also our unwillingness/inability to allow the language around race to become normalized and uncharged is prohibitive and I was impressed by the authors willingness to allow the color of a character's skin to be as normal and non-angsty as hair color. Plus, there simply were characters of color.) Similarly, Vic's observation of his own and the victims' gayness felt natural and non-titillated.

While I enjoyed the mystery, I was bothered more than once that Vic had information that the other detectives needed but he never provided. And I thought Lisa's contribution made the whole thing feel a little too easy.

All in all, though, I really quite enjoyed it.

Criss Cross
Again, I quite enjoyed this story by Price. I'll definitely be looking to finish the series and keeping my eyes open for others. I found Vic and Jacob hot together and Jacob is just so wonderfully accepting and understanding. He makes me swoon.

I did think it was all a little predictable. I had it figured out quite early and I thought the plot line (as in who was the bad guy, etc) was one I had read many times before, even if not necessarily with the psychic aspect. And, for being the elite of the bureau they sure don't seem to vet their officers very well. show less

Whilst trawling this library thingyet again, I noticed the PsyCop books were rated by a few readers. So, read the 1st two and got the 3rd a week or so later. I thoroughly enjoyed them and they totally fed the m/m cop glom I have at present, with a shmear of paranormal activity on the side.

Victor pops pills to dull his “gift” and make his life more bearable and to be able to function semi normally. I kinda liked this, he was so not what I felt a hero should be. He even sneaks into the cough medicine when the pills aren’t working up to snuff.

In the 1st book Vic’s partner of so many years is retiring and we meet Vic at his soon to be ex partner Maurice’s retirement do. What struck me very quickly is his very loneliness and lack show more of connection with anyone. He is a gay cop and in this house of people he was not a part of it. You also meet Vic’s smexy love interest the confident and successful Jacob, also a cop. What is it with this name. All these gorgeous Jacob/Jakes???!!! They are polar opposites. Vic is a scruff, who has issues finding a clean jacket and Jacob looks like he has stepped out of a fashion magazine. The connection between the two is luscious and hot. Bathroom sex, merow!

All 3 books have that cop and mystery kinda thing going on but it is also about letting someone into his life, trust and making a connection. I really enjoyed all of them. Occasionally I felt the mystery wrapped up a little too smartly and quickly and had a few issues with pacing, but to be honest it was not really a huge deal as I enjoyed the read so much. It looks like the 4th book is coming out soon and I am looking forward to reading it muchly!

You can check out my other reviews here http://sharrow.wordpress.com show less

There’s also a big chunk available as a free preview. Victor is a PsyCop and Jacob is a regular cop with a PsyCop partner of his own. Victor’s special talent, talking to the dead, distresses him so much he regularly doses himself with serious drugs to numb his sensitivity. Jacob hooks up with him (they’re having sex only a few pages in!) and then they immediately get caught up in a murder investigation that seems to involve the paranormal. It moved a little fast for me—I never really got why Jacob was so into Victor so fast, especially given Victor’s self-description as sloppy druggie—but I can see why slash fans might like Price’s work.

These two stories had me page turning. The antihero narrator kept my interest and my sympathy even when making stupid decisions. The mystery plots were a bit thin and the supernatural elements were not extremely consistent. There was a little bit of police procedural flavoring but not much and the Chicago setting got shortchanged I thought. The gay romance/porn interludes were fun and hot.

I heard about this book on LT. It is part of a series, but I only ordered the first book, because I wanted to see if I liked it before committing. Of course I did, so now I have to order the rest.

This book is an omnibus of the first 2 books in the series: Among the Living , and Criss Cross . It is good that they are combined because they are both short novels, only 253 pages in a trade sized book.

The stories themselves are multi-genre. They are mysteries, the main character, Victor, is a cop in Chicago. The substance of the stories is about a murder/crime and Victor's personal life. He is not a typical cop, he is more geeky and unsure of himself. The other genre is fantasy. Victor is a psychic and he teams with a non-psychic cop, the show more idea being that they both won't get wiped out by the same things. Because Victor is a psychic he can see and hear the dead. He has to live very carefully to keep them at bay, and he also can't go certain places where people have died - like hospitals. He often has to medicate himself to keep himself sane. The drugs are legal and prescribed, but Victor uses too many, he also uses alcohol and other drugs to feel like he is alone in his head.

The final genre is romance, because the personal story is how Victor meets Jacob and falls in love and lust. When not dealing with Jacob, Victor is obsessing about his various issues.

Victor's long time non-psychic partner is retiring. Victor is at the retirement party when he meets Jacob. He is the non-psychic half of another partnership from another precinct. They have a quick passionate grope and then get called into the station for a murder investigation. There is a serial killer who is going around and killing and then displaying men after sex. Victor is assigned a new partner, Lisa from New Mexico. Lisa seems to fit right in, and she clicks with Victor, but she also has a secret that comes back to cause her grief.

The investigation moves forward, as does Victor and Jacob's relationship. The ending moves into the fantasy realm again when the bad guy is identified and there is the final confrontation.

In the second book, Lisa is away, and Victor is now partnered with another newcomer, Roger. He is like an annoying puppy, always underfoot. Victor has physical problems in this book. He not only sees and hears the dead, but begins to feel their touch. They also are now flocking to him. Victor over medicates and it causes problems with his internal organs. He ends up on medical leave. Meanwhile - Jacob has to go view an execution and Lisa keeps calling with cryptic warnings.

Victor manages to blunder into the hands of the bad guys, and is kidnapped. The story then is about how to survive, alert others to his predicament, and then escape. The ending again uses fantasy, this time fantasy science. Victor and Jacob come to an positive understanding about their relationship.

The writing was good, I liked the characters, and the fantasy premise, the romance was sweet. It was perhaps a bit light on the mystery and crime aspects of the story. I would have preferred more meat, and more actual mystery. I plan to read the rest of the series. show less