A Vision of Murder

Psychic Abby Cooper invests in a fixer-upper with her sister, Cat, and handyman Dave. Abby takes a month off from doing psychic readings to fix up her own house and the fixer-upper. Those plans are changed when her boyfriend, FBI agent Dutch Rivers, is shot and she has to nurse him back to health. Abby does work on the fixer-upper whenever she can but work stops when she and Dutch spot the ghost of a beautiful blonde which disappears before their eyes. Abby has already had visions about the house and now her psychic ability is telling her that the blonde woman had been murdered. When Abby and Dave's houses are both broken into and Abby is attacked, she realizes someone or something is trying to keep her away from the house. But when show more Abby finds a box hidden in the house and has another psychic vision about the woman, she knows she has to find the killer, even though Dutch is vehemently opposed to her getting involved. When Abby's office is broken into by someone searching for the box and another person is murdered, she is more determined than ever to find the killer.

"A Vision of Murder" is a well written, well done mystery. The psychic elements are very believable. Author Victoria Laurie does a great job describing how the psychic mind works, saying Abby's visions are a sensation like a telephone ringing in another room, only they are in Abby's head. Even though Abby is on vacation, she still has a chance to help people with her psychic ability which makes for some of the most interesting parts of the book. Abby's ability to tell if someone is dead merely by looking at their photo is also interesting. Abby is a very real heroine with some real problems, most noticeably the relationship with her uncaring parents. It's her relationship with other people that help make her such a great characters, especially her long-distance friendship with Medium Theresa; her friendship with handyman Dave, who will do literally anything to help her; and her friendship with her sister Cat. Her relationship with Dutch is one of best written parts of the book, the arguments they have are very realistic. And Abby's attempts to take their relationship to another level are some of the funniest parts of the book. There are other humorous moments, like the protective gear Dave wears when going into the haunted house. Another funny scene involves Cat, a bulldozer, and a police car. The mystery itself is nicely plotted, although there's never much doubt about who the murderer is. Finally, while Victoria Laurie introduces a new character, M.J. Holliday, who now has a series of her own, she does it so that M.J. fits right into the storyline rather than as a promo for the new series.

"A Vision of Murder" is a great mystery. Highly recommended. show less

My least favorite of the first three, Abby went from awesome main character I stood behind to one that made me cringe. While it was supposed to be funny, I guess, she came off too unsympathetic to Dutch's injuries (the potholes, ouch?) and was reckless with her safety. Stubbornness is one thing, stupidity is another. I like she has flaws, but her aggravation with Dutch being injured got tiresome. As an example, the first day he starts walking again, with a cane, she won't stop walking quickly to investigate a property, and only feels guilty when she looks back to see him pale and sweating from trying to keep up. She gets annoyed when he asks her to stay with him a bit while he's recovering to help him out since he can't move for a week show more or so, and the doctor suggests it. She keeps calling him "Gimpy" as a nickname because he is currently with a limp while in recovery. I mean seriously?

Cat felt a bit overdone as well with one particular scene but the side family dynamics are still enjoyable enough to add layers. Abby spends time with work but it's not the same feel since she didn't find her newest mystery through a client this time and spends hardly any time in the office. The mystery itself held backstory but some of it was predictable and it didn't hold my interest in comparison to the other two. Having a ghost is semi pointless when the ghost is around so little, so this doesn't bring in as much of a haunted element as I wanted, but the foggy effect and that one particular scene was downright twisted fun. Full review soon. show less

Synopsis: Professional psychic Abby Cooper is planning to fix up an old house and make a killing in the real estate market--until she encounters a killing of another kind....
This Old Haunted House
When Abby gets roped into investing in a fixer-upper, she has no idea she'll go from real estate mogul to real-life ghostbuster. After the deal is closed, phantom inhabitants of the house replay a violent night from long ago that ended in the murder of a beautiful blonde. The only way to evict the house's spectral tenants -- and save Abby's handyman from flying drills -- is to uncover the dead woman's identity and solve her murder.
Aided by her boyfriend, sexy FBI agent Dutch Rivers, Abby discovers the key to the puzzle is a hidden treasure lost show more since World War II. Unfortunately, Abby's not the only one intent on finding it. As she gets closer to the truth, a madman shadows her every move. Now a race is on to find the treasure and solve the mystery -- and only the winner will survive. ...

My Thoughts: A disappointing cozy despite the addition of paranormal elements that I adore.

What Worked: I very much enjoy books featuring psychic phenomena. I love Jayne Ann Krentz's Arcane Society books. I love Christine Feehan's GhostWalker series. I will even read non-fiction books that talk about the subject! So, thank goodness for Psychic intuition and all things woo-woo because otherwise this book might have turned out to be a complete dud for me. Abby is a professional psychic and her abilities are pretty fascinating. I love her on board lie detector that sing songs the words "Liar Liar pants on fire!" In addition to the enjoyable woo-woo factor I liked the secondary cast of characters even though most of them were over the top caricatures of real people. I especially liked the inclusion of MJ Holliday, who is the star of Laurie's other series. Also, the added history about WWII, Jewish precious gem dealers from the 40s and priceless treasure were all very interesting.

What Didn't work: Abby. Period. She was one of the most, without a doubt, TSTL women I've read about. You'd think she would have a special insight when it comes to avoiding trouble but NOOOOOOO. Abby not only finds herself in trouble repeatedly but she purposely avoids listening to her intuition. She's a freakin' PSYCHIC here people! So why would she go barreling into her home knowing that the person who broke in is STILL THERE? Because she's Too Stupid To Live! Why would she, not only ignore her boyfriend's, (who is an FBI agent) insistence on having someone with her at all times, but purposely sneaks away to be on her own after being assaulted on two different occasions? Because She's Too Stupid To Live!!!!! Now, throw in a large amount of whining, a slur against her boyfriend's mother, vindictive behavior with the sole purpose of causing her boyfriend pain and childish argumental rebuttals (similar to "I know you are but what am I?") and you've got a big reason this book did not work. Now on a side note I did read the first 2 books in the series ages ago and liked them enough to get all the rest of the books in the series.

The Abby Issue aside, the plot also didn't work quite well in this book. Granted the background story about the gems and Nazi's and stolen treasure was all fun but the mystery aspect of who was causing Abby harm was pathetically obvious. There was only one suspect. Not even a red herring was thrown in to mix it up a bit. Not to mention the haunted house subplot that was wrapped up very quickly with no fanfare. In addition to that, I'm wondering if the business that Abby, her sister and her handyman went into together will continue into the next books or if it's sole purpose was to bring in the haunted house as a catalyst to the pathetic mystery within this book.

In A Nutshell: Despite my love of all things woo-woo I just couldn't like this book much more than 2 stars. I'm very character driven in my reading so a TSTL female lead just kills the book for me. BUT even if I were more plot driven this book would still fail. With all that said, I do plan to continue on with the series because I'm really hoping this was just one rotten nut in the mix. show less

What could go wrong? Professional psychic Abby Cooper, her excellent handyman Dave McKenzie and Abby’s wealthy, domineering sister Cat go in together to flip a real fixer-upper house. What no one knew was that the house came with a ferocious, malignant ghost and a terrible secret dating back to World War II.

Author Victoria Laurie takes a complex story and never lets it drag this excellent story. This is my third read in the series, and I think I’ve loved this one the best of all.

Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler...

but mostly for the first book. Ever notice how the most benign details of later books in a mystery series can give away the entire original story?

So, the romantic storyline.

Abby and Dutch.

I was rooting for them in the first two books. I'm a fan of semi-antagonistic relationships that grow into love. And throughout the first book, these two characters sparked.

But I really, really wanted them to break up by midway through this one. Bitching at one another repeatedly for no reason--not even one external to the relationship? It gets old, fast. Some of the fights in this book were understandable. Most of them were not.

Still read it in one day, though. These books are addictive.

A thoroughly enjoyable series of books. Satisfying mystery and the usual mishaps between her and Dutch finally lead somewhere (okay, kinda PG13 but still ...).

Off topic and meant as a compliment -- After reading several books in series (and planning on reading more) and having something really nagging at the back of my mind, it finally dawned on me who the character reminded me of (in a totally non-derivative and good way and just a tiny bit) -- a grownup Trixie Belden from one of my favorite YA series (really old school like before internet and cell phones)! (Hmmm...maybe Dutch a little of the tough-guy, goody-two-shoeish Jim Wheeler?) By remind, I guess something of the personality and the heroine, while solving the mysteries, not a show more superhero and detached-logical no involvements with friends or family type of girl and not looking for mysteries so much as falling into in the course of an apparently full life. Maybe it's just these earlier book covers!
[bc:The Mystery of the Missing Heiress|183153|The Mystery of the Missing Heiress (Trixie Belden #16)|Kathryn Kenny|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1205212070s/183153.jpg|1958837] show less

A good read and another entry in the Psychic Eye mystery series. Really likable characters, plenty of intrigue and mystery, and a ghost or two thrown in. Crosses over briefly with the author's other Ghost Hunters series. Recommend it.