HUNTING FEAR

Psychics and psychopaths, skeptics and seers knock heads in Kay Hooper’s well-crafted thriller. Noah Bishop’s FBI Special Crimes Unit of precognitive profilers must keep a low profile. SCU Agent Lucas Jordan locates missing people by using his extrasensory abilities. A serial kidnapper/murderer is playing a deadly game with Jordan--and winning. Jordan gets some help from carnival fortune-teller “Zarina,” who has “seen” the next kidnapping, but the “carny” connection is bad press for Bishop’s unit. Narrator Dick Hill slips fluidly between characters, adding minute vocal quirks that immediately identify the speaker. Boston accents, almost imperceptible shifts for higher-pitched women’s voices, gruff or gentle baritones, slight nasality, or the occasional stammer define individuals, adding depth and making them credible. The pace is fast, the plot heart-stopping, and the performance first-rate. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 05]