Poltergeist (Greywalker, Book 2): Kat Richardson

Seattle PI Harper Blaine is back to her job...and some sense of normalcy...after her life was irrevocably changed after a two-minute visit to Death's doorstep. She's a Greywalker now, able to come and go between our reality and the shadowy, dangerous zone called the Grey. Things that dwell in the Grey aren't very friendly...and they tend to bite.

With the continued help of her friends, Ben and Mara Danzinger, Harper is still trying to cope with this "talent," but it's slow going, and she is still unable to master this new skill set. In this sequel to Greywalker, she will need every bit of knowledge she's gathered -- and all the help she can get -- if she's going to survive this case....even if it means asking one of the dwellers of the Grey.

Professor Garton Tuckman is the obnoxious, condescending leader of a college research group attempting to recreate the Philip project...a sort of group-think endeavor from the 70's that tried to conjure up a "ghost" based on the power of their minds, and their fervent belief in the entity they dubbed "Philip." Tuckman doesn't believe in the supernatural, of course. His twisted version of this project is meant to study this odd effect, using a misfit group of participants...each one with a lot of baggage and not exactly the most mentally stable.

When events and phenomena begin to spin out of control, Tuckman is convinced there is a saboteur in the group. It's simply not logical. Why? Because he and his associates have rigged the entire set-up and thrown a ringer named Mark Lupoldi into the group to imitate the "unexplained" table knocking/rattling/flashing lights effects usually found in a poltergeist haunting. He hires Harper to find the culprit and put a stop to it before the project runs completely off the rails.

The problem: his merry band of participants really have conjured up a poltergeist. And Celia, as she's so named, is out of control. When Mark ends up dead in a nasty way, there are way more questions than answers. Harper has an idea of how he really died: Celia.

This second in the series ended up being just what I suspected; Harper's character, and the secondary cast, needed room to grow after their first outing. In some ways, they seem more alive -- even when they're undead -- with backgrounds and personalities beginning to shine through.

The reader is given plenty of information on the case at the very beginning, but it still requires a PI's touch to solve the final mystery (it's a real zinger.) The action moves at a wicked pace, too. With a rather limited band of miscreants -- and possible murderers -- kept to a minimum, it works out quite nicely.

What really grabbed me was the author's attention to detail in the building of the story. The Philip project isn't made up from Richardson's imagination. It actually happened, although there is very little information available on it. And the final scenes are played out using the history of the area, real locations, and built upon true crimes past. Probably little known to anyone living outside Seattle, but it's still a truly impressive technique.

Like its predecessor, there is something for everyone...fans of urban fantasy and mysteries alike. If this is any indication of the direction this author plans to take, I'm really looking forward to the sequel. High marks to Ms. Richardson.
-------------------------
Publisher: Roc Trade (August 7, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0451461509
ISBN-13: 978-0451461506
Buy the Book