"paranormal thriller"

Riley Crane, a member of the Special Crimes Unit made up of psychics, is sent to Opal Island to investigate occult symbols turning up on buildings. She wakes up one morning to find she has no memory of the last three weeks and her psychic powers are gone. A short distance away, a body of a man is found hanging from a rope without a head. The sheriff calls Riley to the crime scene hoping as a FBI agent she can help him out.

She discovers that an occult ceremony has taken place in the area and she meets Ash who she instinctively knows is her lover. Ash discovers a scar on Riley that is the result of a taser. Someone was able to get past her guards and use it on her; she theorizes that a person performed black-occult activities using the energies released to keep Riley in a psychically weakened state. If she finds the person who attacked her, she will find the killer but even using Ash as a lifeline may be enough to ensure victory over her unknown enemy.

SLEEPING WITH FEAR is different than any of the other Noah Bishop/Special Crimes unit novels because in this work the heroine loses her psychic powers and must use ordinary methods to conduct an investigation. Kay Hooper has the magic touch when it comes to writing paranormal thrillers leaving fans always eagerly awaiting her next masterpiece. It is a sure bet this novel will be on all the best seller lists.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 18, 2006

Summary

Fear has never been so close....

New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper returns with a relentless thriller that brings her readers face-to-face with fear itself. In this terrifying new novel, a psychic special agent finds herself caught up in a tangled web of secrets, lies . . . and evil.

Riley Crane woke up fully dressed, a gun under her pillow, and covered in blood. Even more frightening, she didn't remember what happened the night before. In fact, she barely remembered the previous three weeks.

An ex-army officer, now a federal agent assigned to the Special Crimes Unit, Riley was a chameleon—a clairvoyant who could blend in with her surroundings, be anyone or anything she chose to be. The SCU's expert on the occult, she'd been sent to the beachfront cottage on Opal Island by her enigmatic chief, Noah Bishop, to investigate reports of dangerous occult activity.

But that was three weeks ago. Now she's awoken to discover that she's got a sexy new man in her life and an unreliable memory, and that the clairvoyant abilities she's always depended on to protect her are MIA. Worse yet, with SCU resources stretched thinner than ever before, Riley is alone and without backup, feeling her way through a deadly game of blindman's buff, where no one around her is quite who or what they seem. And a bizarre murder is only the first jarring reminder of how high the stakes really are.

Bishop wants Riley off the case. So does powerful local D.A. Ash Prescott. Both her old retired army buddy Gordon Skinner and Sheriff Jake Ballard believe she can catch a vicious killer. But one of these four men knows exactly what's going on in this coastal community, and that's knowledge Riley desperately needs. For what Riley can't remember is more than enough to cost her her life. This time evil isn't just closer than she thinks—it's already there.