The office in the basement is courtesy of the fact that she can see things like the ghost of Ruben Creed. In high school, Bernadette's twin sister died in a drunk driving accident, and somehow this created a psychic link between the two girls that allows Bernadette to occasionally see the dead, and more frequently to enter the minds of killers. This, understandably, throws some of her fellow agents. One agent not affected by Bernadette's odd ability is her ASAC, Tony Garcia. Not only does he respect her psychic talent, he believes strongly in her detecting abilities, which many others write off because she seems so odd.

When Bernadette finally gets called in on a series of suicides she's been convinced for months are actually murders, she quickly discovers that she's correct. With the help of Creed, and Garcia's constant support, Bernadette discovers an underground sex fetish that involves drowning.

All of the victims are college girls, and several of them had the same psychiatrist. Several also shared a particular young professor with a taste for young, troubled women. The doctor and the professor quickly hit the top of Bernadette's suspect list, along with the psychiatrist's younger brother.

Bernadette has a few run-ins of her own, and mysteriously channels more of this killer's emotions than she has before. The taste of a budding romance between she and Garcia gives a little more flavor and a little bit of a lift to a story and a series of lives that would otherwise be pretty depressing. Bernadette's life isn't exactly sunshine and roses, and neither is Garcia's, not to mention those of all the mentally unstable victims.

There are few characters of any depth outside of Bernadette, Garcia, one of the victims, and the killer; just the occasional cop. The reader will get a strong feel for the primaries, though, and will flip-flop frequently between the professor, the doctor, and the doctor's brother, especially once the backgrounds on the three become clearer.

Suffice it to say that Bernadette is the only character that drives the plot; it's the plot itself that will pull readers along. And, though the mystery itself is a fairly traditional serial murder, the odd trips into the killer's mind, and Bernadette dealing with them, are very interesting side notes. Since several scenes are through the killer's eyes, they can be fairly graphic, even bloody (despite the killer's preference for water), leaving the reader with an understanding of Bernadette's difficulty coping with her visions.

This is no lighthearted read; there is little that is light about it, actually. It is a very good mystery (I, for one, didn't guess the killer until a few chapters from the end) with a strong leading lady. It did strike me as a great deal like the first one, which is why a docked a star. However, I'm often disappointed by the second books of series, and this was a pleasant surprise.  It will be a page-turner for mystery and suspense lovers alike.

--Sarrah Knight