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BLOOD DREAMS is the latest in Kay Hooper’s long-running series about the Special Crimes Unit, run by a man named Bishop who puts the “special” in Special Agent by running an FBI team that consists entirely of people with psychic or other otherworldly powers. In this case, a precognitive named Dani dreams every night of the same manhunt, where she is leading Bishop deeper into a burning building in search of his wife, who has been kidnapped for bait. What makes the dream particularly confusing (aside from the shifting details) is that Dani had made a point of turning down Bishop’s invitation to join the FBI. However, her twin sister’s call for help for support during a divorce has Dani coming back to her Georgia hometown – and the unmistakable feeling that she has crossed paths with the criminal she has been dreaming about. The FBI is hot on the case of the serial killer who slaughtered a Congressman’s daughter. The overwhelming conclusion is that the killer was scared off by the sudden spike in police awareness and has gone to ground. When two women who match the killer’s preferred victim go missing in a small town in Georgia, Bishop wonders if the killer has simply moved shop. But the FBI’s new Director isn’t convinced. The evidence trail starts and ends in Boston. So that’s where the official investigation stays. The unofficial one, however, is headed south, and it includes both Bishop and his wife. I’ve been a fan of Hooper’s since the first one I read, and this book delivers like all the others – it’s a tense, exciting hardboiled with a touch of something else. Hooper doesn’t do cute 'woo woo'; her characters are professionals with one or two extra talents that add to both their strengths and weaknesses. My only complaint, and it’s a personal one, is that due to the kink of this particular killer, only women are victims. I’m not a big fan of 'femjep,' where only females are in jeopardy. In the previous Hooper books I’ve read, the peril was spread out a little more evenly. However, even while saying that, I can’t fault Hooper for using a new twist in her plots and acknowledge that she writes plenty of strong women. I enjoyed meeting Dani, and look forward to the next Blood book. And there will be a next one – the Bishop books are always organized in trilogies recognizable by title: the three previous sets contained the word Shadow, Evil, or Fear. BLOOD DREAMS kicks off the Blood trilogy, and while the main mystery is solved, enough clues are left to make it clear the sort of story arc that the next two books will follow.
Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, December 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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