Sometime a few weeks ago, I reviewed the first book in this series; the author describes her books as a combination of spec-fic and mystery/crime. I suppose that’s accurate, although I’d say moreso for this book than the previous one. Anyway, Ms. Richardson likes ferrets and Broadway show tunes (I’m guessing, by her encyclopedic knowledge displayed of them); she has a degree in journalism from Cal State Long Beach. After writing for such diverse things as computer games and gemological teaching materials, she has tried her hand at fiction and has done well enough to be published in trade paperback format and to have contracts up to book 6.

Harper Blaine is a private investigator who, after dying for a brief period of time (two minutes), has acquired some interesting abilities that have expanded her PI-ing into the paranormal realm. When a professor, doing a study on group dynamics via group-created poltergeists, suspects that someone is sabotaging his project, he turns to Harper to investigate his group and his room. The professor already has someone in the group who’s supposed to be faking results, but apparently the phenomena have been far outstripping the ability of anyone, given the constrains of physics. And then, unfortunately, someone ends up dead . . .

This book is a little bit more of a straight mystery/crime novel than the previous one. There is significantly less introspection and emotional content — at least from Harper herself — in this volume, and rather than ten different story lines blending together to form one complete whole, there’s really just one plot and it goes from point A to point B. Lots of diversions, don’t get me wrong, and Harper does talk to her occasional boyfriend (from book 1) on the phone a couple times, but overall it’s Harper investigating the weird phenomena and then the murder. Fans who are really looking for detective work and a mystery novel with paranormal elements are definitely going to enjoy this.

Regarding the poltergeist element, Ms. Richardson gives a lot of good information about what the professor is actually trying to do. Apparently some time in the ’70s, a group of people set out to create poltergeist phenomena using a fake personality with a fake history (complete with historical inaccuracy). They apparently succeeded, but a significant amount of the information about this research has disappeared — video footage, even. What she tells us about that experiment, as well as her information on all the fakery available (how to make a table appear to jump, how to make nearly un-recognizable thumps), was fascinating. Now I want to hold my own fake seance!

The most interesting characters in this book were either Phoebe and her family members (the deceased worked at a bookstore owned by Phoebe), who were sort of typically Jamaican but had a lot of soul, or a few of the members of the poltergeist group. Quinton, an associate and friend of Harper’s who does work involving sound and security, is as fascinating as usual (he’s sort of like a bizarre inversion of Rachel Caine’s ever-hot rogue, Lewis Levander Orwell). Of course, Chaos, Harper’s ferret, steals the show; there are a couple lines involving pockets and mayonnaise jars and the like that made me smile. Overall, I’d recommend the book for fans of mysteries, and those who liked the early Anita Blake books, as well as many of the recent urban fantasy novels. 4/5 stars.