Murder on the Astral Plane (Kate Jasper Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: The great Kate Jasper returns in a fresh amateur sleuth tale
Review:

Besides worrying about her beloved significant other Wayne Caruso, who is very sick, Kate Jasper fears joining crowds. Feeling karmically impaired; Kate knows that every time she ventures into a group, someone ends up murdered. Her close friend psychic Barbara Chu convinces Kate to accompany her on a visit to the home of Justine Howe and her horde of extrasensory folks.

Reluctantly agreeing, Kate barely survives the harrowing experience of being a passenger in Barbara's car. At Justine's house, Kate meets a crowd of strange beings with varying psychic abilities. However, during a soiree, one of them garrots Silk Sokoloff. In spite of the high degree of cosmic abilities no one can identify the killer. The police arrive and interrogate everyone in Justine's house before allowing anyyone to leave. On the way home accompanied by a cacophony of horns, Barbara informs Kate they will investigate this murder. Just saying no fails and Kate finds herself involved in another sleuthing adventure. MURDER ON THE ASTRAL PLANE, the tenth Kate Jasper amateur sleuth mystery, retains the freshness and humor evident in the previous stories. The great Kate is at her lovable best, especially in her dealings with Barbara. The droll story line contains a fine murder mystery and wonderful, witty characters. Jacqueline Girdner demonstrates her talent with a must read for sub-genre fans.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Bland at Best
Review: It must be said that I thought Murder on the Astral Plane had a great premise but it just did not keep my interest while I was reading the book itself nor was the killer a big surprise. This was the first book in the Kate Jasper series that I have read so I may have missed something from her previous novels but I just felt that the plot was not really fleshed out much.

The premise is that Kate Jasper's paramour, Wayne, is home bedridden with a severe case of the flu. Her friend and fellow psychic Barbara Chu drags her out to a psychic soiree to get her mind off of Wayne's illness, her ex-husband Craig who keeps professing his love for her and the nagging sense that she is a walking harbinger of death. During this soiree, Silk Sokoloff, an outlandish writer who loves to stir up controversy and anger wherever she goes, is strangled and none of the psychics can figure out who the culprit is so of course Kate and Barbara must put on their sleuth hats and uncover the murderer (as if the police are REALLY as oblivious and stupid as they are made out to be in this book).

While Kate is nosing around another murder occurs and of course the police think Kate is the killer (and who wouldn't because she is always at the death scene and can't even figure out not to leave finger prints...) so to save her good name she must discover who is really behind these deaths.

All in all, this could have been a very good novel but as it was - I felt it was bland and the writing was unimaginative and formulaic. The characters were all stereotypes and most of them were not even filled out enough to make them stand out of the "wacky" cast of characters. Halfway through the book, I realized that I did not even really care who did it - I just thought that the book would possibly have an interesting twist to it, but it disappointed me all around. Let's put it this way, I finished it a day or two ago and when I sat down to write my review of it - I could not even remember the title - to me that says something. If you want to read a really fun psychic mystery series try Martha C. Lawrence's Elizabeth Chase series - it is well rounded and exciting.

Rating:
Summary: Mediums and madness
Review: Kate Jasper is afraid to walk into a room full of people, and rightfully so. You see, in the past, whenever she entered such a room, one of the occupants was murdered. Her friend Barbara Chu hopes to help her by taking her to a meeting of psychics. Surely none of them would be so lacking in foresight as to avoid a murderer. Wrong, the most obnoxious of the group, the famous author Silk Sokolov is murdered with a cat toy. Kate of course, feels responsible and obligated to find the murderer with very little help from her sick sweetie Wayne, and the bizarre members of the Paloma PD.

This is an entertaining quick read and a good addition to the series.