Victoria Laurie – A vision of murder

The third book in the Psychic Eye Mystery series, published December 2005.



Professional psychic Abby Cooper has invested in a fixer-upper, hoping to make a killing in the real estate market. But a killing of another kind puts her plans awry, as the ghost of a murdered woman and some troublesome poltergeists lead her into a mystery that stretches all the way back to World War II.


Abby and her boyfriend Dutch, who is now a FBI agent, had plans to go to Detroit for some well deserved vacation. Abby had even kept the whole month of February clear for that, and for furnishing her new house. But, faith had other plans. Dutch was shot in the rear, and Abby had to move in with him, to take care of him. In a platonic way, as the doctor has forbidden this kind of thing.
Abby, her sister Cat and her handyman Dave have started a new firm, buying houses, fixing them up, and selling them with a profit. Cat provides the money, Abby does the business part, and pays the mortgage, and Dave does the fixing upping. But unfortunately, their very first buy is a disaster. The place is haunted, and Dave is terrified when his own power tools attack him. He will not go back in there!
Dutch and Abby don’t know what to make of his story, and investigate for themselves. Seeing a dead woman beneath the basement stairs, and then having her disappear, is freaking enough, and Abby also smells cigarette smoke. There is more than one being in there, and they are not benevolent!
Abby is afraid of ghosts herself, and is not a medium or “ghostbuster”, so she asks her best friend for help, who can recommend someone to take care of the problem. But MJ has little time at the moment, and she wants Abby to find out what happened there first, and why the house is haunted. Abby gets little visions dating back to WWII. The previous owner was some kind of French war hero, big in the résistance, but the vibes Abby is getting, are not agreeing with that.

And so, between taking care of her boyfriend, who is extremely over protective of her, something Abby cannot handle at all, and finding out what happened all those years ago, Abby also has to deal with her sister. Apparently their parents have moved into her house, making Cat and her family live in the Four Seasons. Nothing can please their mother, and Cat feels like a 5 year old around her. And that while she runs a multimillion business and is mega rich herself!


Okay, I could only read a part of this book Sunday evening, and it gave me nightmares! Luckily, I read a little more yesterday and finished it today, so now I know what happened, it is not so scary anymore. But, well, I do scare pretty easily, so I am sure you all will have no problems enjoying this book.

A lot happens in this book, a wounded boyfriend, an escaped madman who is above genius level and has no conscience at all, a professor with a crush on Dutch, and an intriguing tale of history. I still like Abby, though at times she behaves like a little child, and she knows it. But then, Dutch also crosses the line. There is caring for, and being overprotective and confining and smothering. So they will have to work on their issues for a few more books I guess.
Of course, there is still Milo as a secondary character, and he is going for a new career. Wonder how that will go.
Dave is also a great addition to this series. I wonder when Abby will meet his “old lady”, and find out a little more about this biker lookalike, but teddy bear of a man.
On the bright side, Abby’s miniature Dachshund Eggy (because he loves eggs) and Dutch’ cat can get along just fine, so living together for real should not be a problem in that regard ;)

The plot was great, I did figure out some things before Abby did, but not everything. The suspense in the end was also fine, but I was also shaking my head at Abby for blindly rushing into things, without backup.

8,5 stars