Title: The Psychic and the Sleuth
Authors: Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 234 Pages
Category: Historical, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: Everything comes together nicely in the end of The Psychic and the Sleuth, making for an entertaining summer vacation read.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Psychic and skeptic—how could their love affair go wrong?
Inspector Robert Court’s relentless insistence the wrong man hanged for the murder of Court’s cousin has him on his superintendent’s bad side. Court is assigned lowly vice cases such as exposing a confidence man posing as a medium to fleece the wealthy.
Down on his luck, Oliver Marsh learned he had an aptitude for conducting séances. He assuages his guilt by bringing comfort to the grieving and offering occasional insights coming from true psychic flashes. Marsh has tried to deny these flashes, but when he’s bowled over by a vivid memory of murder coming from the other side, he can no longer pretend he doesn’t possess a gift.
Marsh reveals details about that night which only Court’s cousin would know, and the detective vows to track down the truth—by staying as close to the fake psychic as humanly possible. But close leads to closer and soon the pair is involved in not only a torrid affair but a hunt for a killer—before he strikes again.
This is a previously released title.
Review: The writing team of Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee have become synonymous with M/M historical romance over the years, and their 2017 collaboration The Psychic and the Sleuth is a fine example of why. It’s a novel set in Victorian Era London, and along with the romance they’ve added a paranormal twist with just a titch of BDSM to things just to spice things up a bit.
Oliver Marsh passes himself off as a spiritualist. He doesn’t truly make contact with the deceased lingering on the other side of the veil, but the more important aspect of his chosen profession is that he’s adept at making the people who pay him believe he is in touch with their dearly departed. His chicanery soon rouses the wrong person’s suspicions, which is where Inspector Robert Court figures into Oliver’s venture. Court means to prove Oliver a fraud and charge him with the crime he is, for all intents and purposes, guilty of, but little did either of them suspect the turn of events that awaited them.
Working on opposite sides of the law and yet both having common feelings of attraction to each other not only adds a nice undercurrent of tension to the telling but also shows how different to each other Oliver and Robert are in personality. I loved Oliver’s flirty playfulness as it contrasted Robert’s staid and stern demeanor, and then saw how well those differences complemented each other in the roles of Dom and sub. For those who don’t read BDSM, I will say that it’s on the light side here, but there is some puppy and breath play involved, just to give you a heads up.
The mystery in this novel is the catalyst that brings the two men together. Oliver evolves quickly from a person of suspicion in the death of a young woman, when Robert witnesses a strange occurrence at a seance, to Robert’s greatest asset in solving the crime. Robert being out to prove Oliver a fraud ends up adding another dimension to the story in the gray area between Oliver being a grifter and him being a counselor for the grieving, giving those who mourn a sense of closure and peace. The fact that their being together was in itself against the law, especially when contrasted with the seriousness of the murder investigation, was also a nice juxtaposition.
Everything comes together nicely in the end of The Psychic and the Sleuth, with the bonus of a suspenseful manhunt to prevent a serial killer from striking again. It all makes for an entertaining summer vacation read.
You can buy The Psychic and the Sleuth here:
[zilla_button url=”http://books2read.com/u/3krAlG” style=”blue” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon, B&N, and Other eTailers [/zilla_button]