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Sense of Evil

Sense of Evil

List Price: $7.50
Your Price: $6.75
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Hooper's Best
Review: A serial killer is on the loose. The victims are always blond, successful women. A FBI special unit compromised of psychic profilers and agents gets involved. Special Agent Isabel Adams is the physic profiler that is showcased in this book. She also happens to be blond and on the killers list of potential victims.

Kay Hooper often writes books with a touch of the paranormal. In fact there are six books in this series involving the same FBI Special Unit. They have all been pretty good if you don't mind the somewhat convenient device of "visions" being used to solve crimes. This book is the weakest of the six in the series. It relies very heavily on the psychic experience. The book gets bogged down in all the psychic detail. It got to be a little too much when main characters would touch and they literally would spark. The book was suspenseful at times and the killer did turn out to be a surprise. It's not a bad read, but Hooper has done better in the past

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Thank Goodness I Didn't Buy This Book
Review: Hooper's books continue to be marred by lapses in logic and research. From the book where the woman woke up from a months long coma with long manicured nails to the one where an inexperience forensics team estimated height and weight of a murder victim from a box of bone fragments, I've often found myself being jerked out of the story by some easily checked error. While I had hoped for rather better because this was her hardcover debut, I was doomed to disappointment again.

While I can suspend belief to accept the psychic part, its the mundane details she misses that gets me.

I see someone has already commented about Hooper's off the wall view of schizophrenia, but what about the FBI agent who had checked all the pharmacies within a hundred miles and no one was taking "schizophrenia medicine"? Because there is no specific medication for schizophrenia and the medications used in its treatment are often prescribed for other mental illness, I could only assume, all other evidence of rampant alcoholism, sado sexual murder and family violence aside, Hastings, South Carolina is the mental health capital of the United States.

Then there is the FBI agent in tight jeans with a calf holster. No matter how good their tush looks, no one who depends on a gun to save their life is going to use a calf holster exclusively. Sheesh, how do you get to it standing up?

I'm not even going to talk about her lack of knowledge about how bodies decay, especially in late spring in South Carolina locked in with rats and certainly not impervious to flies. Read Death's Acre by William M. Bass if you want to know more.

All in all, I think that Hooper needs a fact checker and an editor who is willing to call her on these lapses. She also failed to engage my interest with the characterization. If the reader was new to the series I have no idea how they would have been able to figure out who was who with the introduction of so many characters from the early series.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper
Review: I am so disappointed in this book. She was going along so good in the first two and to end this series with a dud.

The first problem was that she spent way too much time "explaining how psychic powers work or don't work" I was to the point of wanting to skip pages to get back to the "story".

The second problem Hollis Templeton (from the first book) should have either been used more or not at all. Her part in this book was under done. She did not really use her "gift/curse" to any satisfying outcome. Wasn't our herione in this book supposed to help Hollis cope when she see's dead people. Well, she was no help-might as well left the whole thing out. And making our hero psychic too! Yikes-Too Much!

The only positive thing was: I completely was way off base with who the killer was. Totally took me by surpise. It's ashame that the read to get there was so disappointing. I look forward to Kay Hoopers next series and only hope she doens't bog herself down with "explaining" the abilites too much. Leave the mystery in their abilities too!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder are Differnt
Review: I have enjoyed Ms. Hooper's work in the past but Sense of Evil read as a textbook on psychics and abnormal psychology couched in conversations. Most of the conversations were between two people who were supposed to be attracted to each other but, while they sparked when touching in the book, there was no spark for this reader. I found the main characters shallow and Rafe's abilities unexplained other than her had a psychic grandmother. The action manifested itself in gory descriptions of disemboweled bodies but the police spent most of their time sitting in the station house looking at papers . . and talking (did I mention all the talking?).

I don't require physical romance in a mystery or a detailed mystery in a romance story. Unfortunately this book missed both targets - the mystery is not tantalizing and the romance and sex are non-existant. So, why read the book? I kept thinking something would happen and I did want to know the killer, which was a good denoument but predictable by the last third of the book. So 2 stars since I did feel compelled to finish it - but her earlier series involved the reader much more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing...especially in hardcover
Review: I've been like many reviewers a long time fan of this author and have found this latest "Evil" novel to be less then inspiring, or fun to read.

It does read like a textbook as far as the topic of psychic issues. Our teaching was couched in conversation normally between Rafe and Isabel. We would hit these class lectures normally right in the middle of the murder/mystery portion of the book, and I would just be getting into the meat of the story, and then I would be derailed by "too much information." This is not to say that I don't care for instuction and added background. I do, but there is a time when it is just too much. We unfortunatly hit this wall of information throughout the story.

This was just an okay read. There was plenty of suspense (who was doing all of the killing and why) but I just felt that the fleshing out of the storyline, as well as character development was not truly priorty while writing the novel. The relationship between Rafe and Isabel was rather confusing. She spent most of her time lecturing him on paranormal issues, and less time letting her hair down and being relaxed while she was with him socially.

To be honest I did skim a few pages, but still, I was okay as far as not missing anything important. This was not her strongest effort and if you are picking Ms. Hooper up for the first time I highly recommend her other earlier reads or even the other two "Evil" reads. An author can't be on "top" all of the time and we should just remember that she is capable of doing so much better. I'm really looking forward to her latest series she has started that will still feature Bishop and his team, and hope that she is back on track as the author we love.

Official reviewer www.romancedesigns.com

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Paranormal Romance Thriller.
Review: Long a fan of Kay Hooper's, I couldn't wait to get my hands on "Sense of Evil," and I must say I wasn't disappointed. However when I read it, I read as an old friend, someone who'd already accepted the FBI's fictional Special Crimes Unit as fact, someone who had already bought into the special powers of the Unit's investigators. So when my sea-going, writer friend Jack Priest came by my boat and asked me about it, my first inclination was to sing its praises, but then I realized, this man hadn't read any of the others, and therein lies the problem with this book, something I hadn't thought of, but something I have to mention in a review. This third book in the Evil series, in my opinion, relies a little to much on the ones that came before it. I knew this was true when I ferreted out my copies of "Touch" and "Whispers of Evil" and loaned them, along with "Sense," to my friend, recommending he read them in order.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed "Sense of Evil." I believe that Kay Hooper is one of the finest thriller writers going. I love the way she mixes romance and the paranormal stuff into her fast paced stories. She keeps you on the edge of your seat, she quickens your pulse and she makes you love her characters, especially in this book. I spent the next couple of days after finishing it, taking a boat from St. Martin down to Trinidad and I had Police Chief Rafe Sullivan and Special Isabel Adams in my mind the whole way. I replayed that book over and over and that is truly a high compliment, because there is a lot going on when you are at sea, many things that can steal your attention.

But good as the book was, I have to sadly take away a star because a book should stand all by itself. My advice is, if you've read the first two in the series, go out and get this one pronto, you'll love it. And if you haven't read "Touch" and "Whispers," then buy the paperbacks, read them, then move onto "Sense of Evil."

I give this book four stars.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Worst Read Ever
Review: Oh my gosh! I could not wait for this book to come out and when it did, I bought the hard cover - waste of money.

The other "evil" books were great, so why wasn't this one. It was one of the worst books I have ever read, and am a reader addict. I bought all the "evil", "shadows" and even some of her earlier works, but this, WOW, don't quite know how to describe how disappointing this book was. Also it's a good thing I like Kay Hooper other works or I wouldn't buy another of her books.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Good Paranormal Mystery - But Not Hooper's Best!
Review: Special Agent Isabel Adams of the FBI's Special Crimes Unit, the elite unit made up of psychic agents, is assigned to investigate a series of horrific murders in Hastings, SC. Isabel is a top notch profiler and clairvoyant. Her partner, Hollis Templeton, is a medium. Together with local Police Chief, Rafe Sullivan, they pool their skills and resources, paranormal and otherwise, to catch the serial killer menacing the town - a killer who epitomizes evil.

Obviously Agent Adams is beautiful, blonde, sexy, smart, savvy, a martial arts expert, sharpshooter and an excellent investigator. Police Chief Sullivan isn't bad on the eyes either. Yes. Sparks fly...with paranormal results.

I like Kay Hooper's psychic series. However, my favorites are "Out Of The Shadows," featuring Noah Bishop who heads the Special Crimes Unit, and Sheriff Miranda Knight, and "Stealing Shadows." "Sense of Evil" held my interest and is a good light read, if somewhat gruesome. However, it doesn't hold up to the high standards Ms. Hooper set in the above mentioned novels. The characters here are less developed, not as complex, and the story is somewhat formulaic. The mystery is a good one, however. I sure couldn't figure out whodunit!
JANA


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost 5 stars
Review: There is a serial killer loose in Hastings. He is targeting attractive successful blondes. The FBI's SCU unit headed by Noah Bishop sends Isabel, a claivoyant and Hollis, a medium to investigate. As in most of Hooper's novels, the lead psychic makes a connection with a local person, in this case the sheriff, Rafe. Rafe is a latent psychic who confuses the case by creating a shield around Isabel, effectively blocking her abilities. The question is, will they be able to circumvent this problem to find the killer.

I really enjoyed this novel and would have given it five stars, but it just didn't stand on it's own enough. I feel as if I am missing something because I haven't read each of the preceding books. It really didn't detract much, just enough to annoy me a little, until the other books arrive.



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Suspensful
Review: There's a serial killer on the loose. This time blonde women in their late twenties to early thirties are his victims. Years earlier it was redheads and brunettes. Six at a time. Every six years.

Isabel is from the Special Crimes Unit at Quantico. She's a clairvoyent. Her partner Hollis is a mediator. Not only is Isabel phsyic but she can feel the murders as they happen. Hollis can talk to the dead.

Isabel and Hollis go to Hastings to help in the investigation. When they arrive, a news conference is in the process. When Isabel meets the sherrif Rafe Sullivan. There's sparks between them. Literally "sparks". Throughout the investigation they find some things about the victims that would shock the comminuty.

In the end you'll never believe who the killler is. If you want a great book to read. This is it. You won't be disappointed.





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