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Kindle Customer

Yikes!!

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019

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While there were parts that were fun and quirky, I had a major issue with this book that left me quite ranty. The author tends to stereotype people based on ethnicity. The author introduces a character who is an international exchange student from China. Description starts out as "Asian men never looked their real age." What!? Then the author says that he spoke in a light Chinese accent (what's a light Chinese accent!!??) and THEN proceeds to write his dialogue in broken English..."Ms Thompson and I go to same college. We all thought it hoax." Now just because the man is Chinese, we don't need to further compound the stereotyping by insulting the reader by indicating that Chinese people speak in broken sentences. I am dating myself here but the TV show "Bonanza" from the 1960s had a Chinese character who spoke just like that. The author goes on the say that "he had dark circles under his almond-shaped eyes." Ugh, okay, we get it you want the reader to know this guy is Chinese. Then we go on to describe a bad guy who's "half black, half-Hispanic, he had the dark black hair and almond skin tone of his heritages" Oh my head was about to explode. First, not all biracial people look the same. We go on to talk about Donovan and there's a line when Jon is making pizza and says to himself, "oh because Donovan is Hawaiian, I'll add pineapple to his pizza." Yes because all Hawaiians eat pineapple. At one point, the author describes Sho, the IT guy in the Psy office. Sho is half Vietnamese (author uses that "half" bit quite a lot) and half Chinese. Sho was born in the states but the author takes pains to say he was "American through and through in many ways but did have a few Asian mannerisms." OMG, I just can't with this. What the hell is an "Asian mannerism?" And of course he's American!! He was born in the US!! I suspect the author was trying to show the world that Jon and Donovan lived in was multicultural but I am afraid some of the author's biases and misconceptions about people of color were sprinkled throughout the book. Now I know that I am solidly in the minority on this book but hey, my review, my rules. Ok, rant over. In terms of the plot/story/characters. There were parts that were cute and parts that needed tightening up. At times, Jon and Donovan sounded like middle schoolers. There's a part where Jon asked his cop friend, Borrowman, if he could tell that Donovan liked him. By the way, loved Borrowman, who says "dude, you could see his crush from space." Great line. Then the crimes - you could see a mile away who did the shooting. I mean, the description of the shooter practically put an arrow next that character's head! And I thought Jon says that he is not a telepath early in the book but then says he can "go deep" and do telepathic things. And my final pet peeve - names. All of my fellow MM readers are familiar with and love the Psycops series. The psychic in those books is Victor Bayne. So as I am reading this book, I kept wondering why the author used "Bane" for Jonathan's last name. A slip? A head tip to Jordan Castillo Price?? I don't know but it kept bothering me. I also didn't quite get that whole anchoring business. Yes it was described later but then I thought about Jon's mother and step-dad and their backstory and wondered, ok, how did that work if the stepdad was the mom's anchor. I won't go into more detail since that is rather spoilery. So, not sure I can read another of this author's books. Wanted to like it since it has rave reviews and multiple 5 star ratings. But this book left me sad and angry. Not how you want to feel when all you want is an HEA.

Anne

Cute storyline, but lots of casual racism on display.

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2019

Jon Bane is a psychic detective and Donovan Havili is his new partner in this light first book in a series. Jon and Donovan pretty much like each other on sight, and this is overall a pretty low-angst read that has a lot of pluses, but some BIG ol’ racist minuses.

Pluses: Cute, light-hearted narrative style (unusual for a psychic detective story, but welcome) with an interesting psychic power (Jon reads auras) that has believable consequences (Jon shorts out any electronics he gets near). I liked Jon and Donovan’s interactions and the general vibe of the story.

Big minus: This author needs to REALLY watch how she (through Jon’s first person narration) describes people. She’s given the book a diverse cast—Jon’s suspects on the many cases we see him consult span various races and ethnicities—but has proceeded to describe them in a reductive and racist manner. Just off the top of my head, according to Jon, Asian men “don’t show their age,” have “almond shaped eyes,” and, in the case of Chen Li, the Chinese exchange student at the heart of the main case in the book, speak in a very poorly rendered broken English. The Asian American IT guy at Jon’s company, born and raised in the US, dips his head because he still “retains some Asian mannerisms.” Jon also appears able to determine precise racial/ethnic identities upon meeting someone. Donovan is alternately described as Hawai’ian or “having Tongan blood” which apparently makes him big and means he needs to eat a lot. Characters are “part-Chinese and part-Vietnamese” or (in the case of one evil rapist suspect) “part black and part Mexican.” It’s pretty off-putting, honestly, and I wound up DNFing this, which I rarely do.

2 stars

MysRom Fan

Good idea, bad execution, and then there's the real issues.

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book had so much promise. The author starts out with a good concept and pacing, and the characters are fun and quirky and she gives them good voices. Unfortunately, that only lasts for the first half of the book and the second half is all over the place. The author falls back on cliches, repetition, and meandering internal dialogue, and the conflict is either off the page or contrived.

WARNING: More important than any of the above is the HUGE concern that throughout the book the author is problematic with issues of race, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, gender and disability -- particularly mental health issues. Mostly it's that she leans into the stereotypes hard, but there are moments where racism and ableism, in particular, are right on the page. Her biases about mental health are particularly transparent and uncomfortable.

Sam

An enjoyable read.

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2019

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I must admit that I noticed the book but didn't click on it because even though it is a cool cover I did not feel like reading a mystery book. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I am glad it did. I found the book to be well written and edited with a strong story line and satisfying ending, the MCs were engaging and the supporting characters kept the story moving. I will definitely be buying any further books in this series and as the author demonstrated skilled work I will certainly be looking at their other books.

Top reviews from other countries

Midnawolf

Really enjoyable mystery novel.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2019

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This is the first book i have read by this author and I enjoyed it that much that I have downloaded the other two books in this series.

The storyline is simple enough, Jon is a strong psychic who helps the police on difficult or confusing cases. When Donovan interviews for a position with the Psy Jon knows he is right for the job and are partnered together on a confusing case of Alice who claims someone is writing threatening letters to her but something's not right and when an innocent man gets shot by her the mystery deepens.

There are plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing and there is a surprise culprit that you won't expect. Overall a really good story with likeable characters and an interesting twist on psychic investigations.

Well worth a read.

Rowan

Jon & Donovan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 17, 2020

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This author really knows how to get you hooked and if this an intro to what we’ll be reading in this series, I’m all in. Jon is a physic who reads people’s auras, working with the police to determine if their suspect is telling the truth, but this causes him some major problems and he needs an anchor. Donovan is interviewing for a job as a police consultant and because of his gigantic size always has trouble getting people to see him as the kind soul that he is, but Jon spots him and insists that his boss hire him straight away and as they say “the rest is history “. I was up till 3am before I finally decided I needed sleep, brilliant series from a brilliant author

Kirsty Mc

An absolutely fantastic read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2019

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Within a page or two of this book I was hooked. I loved the different premise - where registered psychics are an integral part of police investigations - and the main characters Jon and Donovan really grabbed me.

The writing was brilliant, and funny in so many parts and I truly cared about what happened to the characters throughout the story.

The writer has managed to create a gripping story that wasn’t too heavy - yet still had plenty of meat to it. The side characters were all interesting, from the MCs families, to their work colleagues and the police.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more books from this author - hopefully more in this world (especially if Jon and Donovan get a sequel...which I have fingers crossed they do).

Sue R

Brilliant story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2019

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I loved both main characters and the world in which they are set. The story was good and told with a “Light touch”. I read to be entertained and I don’t like it when a book gets too gory, angst filled or depressing, I have read too many books like that and I can still be unset thinking about them now. I think this is going to be a really enjoyable series, I have already bought the 2nd book and will be starting it right now.

Julia Smith

Case 1

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2020

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Loved this book! A really interesting version of the psychic detective trope which saw a good vein of humour throughout & well thought out defined characters with credible backstories to boot. Brilliant, well worth reading & yes just going to buy book 2 as I want too see what else Jon & Brandon get up too Xx

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