Murder by Death

I used to really enjoy this series and always read them as soon as they came out, but the ninth book in the series, Vision Impossible was so... ridiculous, it really put me off the newer books, even after reading and enjoying #10.  Which means this one languished on my TBR for over 3 years before I finally forced myself to pick it up yesterday.  

Boy I'm glad I did; it was really good.  I didn't realise it was a cross-over book that included the MC from her other series (which has since ended), and it worked really well.  The book begins with Abbey coming to consciousness on her wedding day to discover a bomb strapped to her chest, the latest victim of a serial killer.  From here the book switches between dual timelines and POV's:  Abbey's and M.J.'s.

Normally I'd hate this, but it really worked here. Abbey's POV is the flashback to what led to her being strapped to a bomb, and M.J.'s POV is present tense, trying to find Abbey and the killer before time is up.  It's tense and it's gripping.  

Victoria Laurie herself is a professional psychic, so the paranormal aspect of the storytelling is handled realistically; it never gets so far out there that it becomes difficult to suspend disbelief.  There was at least one small error of logic, and I often twitched about Abbey's high level of internal emotional drama, but overall I couldn't wait to pick it back up again.

This is good news, because I still have two other books in the series to read sitting on my pile.  And now I'm much more optimistic about tackling them.