Author: Jordan Castillo Price
Narrator:: Gomez Pugh
Publisher: JCP Books
Run Time: 4 Hours, 9 Minutes
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb: Criss Cross finds the ghosts surrounding Victor getting awfully pushy. The medications that Victor usually takes to control his abilities are threatening to destroy his liver, and his new meds aren’t any more effective than sugar pills.
Vic is also adjusting to a new PsyCop partner, a mild-mannered guy named Roger with all the personality of white bread. At least he’s willing to spring for the Starbucks.
Jacob’s ex-boyfriend, Crash, is an empathic healer who might be able to help Victor pull his powers into balance, but he seems more interested in getting into Victor’s pants than in providing any actual assistance.
Review: In Criss Cross, the second installment in Jordan Castillo Price’s PsyCop series, another of my favorite characters is introduced—Jacob’s ex lover Curtis, AKA Crash. We don’t learn a lot about Crash in Criss Cross, but trust me when I say he becomes almost as beloved a character as Vic and Jacob themselves as the series progresses. I love the tension between Crash and Jacob, and especially between Crash and Vic, which Gomez Pugh captures in his second go at narrating this series.
But, that’s only a fraction of this story. The heart of it is what’s happening with Victor, and why he’s suddenly attacking Jacob while asleep, leaving bloody marks on Jacob’s skin. The what and the why that Jordan Castillo Price reveals before story’s end adds a layer of danger to Vic’s psychic abilities, which is also played out in the revelation of a sinister plot that involves the living and the dead. JCP uses her considerable writing talent to escalate the macabre in this book, while Pugh employs his smooth as silk vocals to deliver it. Once again he’s captured Vic’s snark, his lack of interpersonal skills, his insecurity and vulnerability where Jacob is concerned, and projects through it all just how new and tentative their relationship still is.
The secondary characters introduced in Criss Cross are all given voices that suit their personalities, from Roger Burke’s swell-Richie Cunningham-Howdy Doody-ness to the gentle wisdom of Crash’s resident ghost Miss Maddie. Gomez Pugh gives style and resonance to each vocalization, regardless of how major or minor the role, and he’s single handedly ensured that 2015 will see me as an audiobook convert.
Lisa Gutierrez once again figures prominently in this installment, further establishing herself as an integral part of Victor’s life, not to mention that JCP has also set the stage for her special brand of television that has me champing at the bit for GhosTV, but that’s a ways off, and I’m just as excited for all the audiobooks in the series leading up to it.
With a steamy ending, one that pumped pure sex right into my tender ears in Pugh’s deep and sultry tones, Criss Cross earns its recommended listen status.
You can buy Criss Cross (PsyCop: Book Two) here:
