Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper (2013 Rom Sus Reading Challenge)

The victims are always the same: beautiful, successful, and blond. Someone was able to coax these intelligent and confident women away from safety. Someone was able to gain their trust long enough to do the unthinkable. Their shocking murders have terrified the inhabitants of a small, peaceful town where such heinous crimes are simply not supposed to happen. Police Chief Rafe Sullivan knows he has to find answers fast before another woman is lured to her death--but Sullivan literally doesn’t have a clue. And when the FBI sends one of their top profilers to help, he’s more than a little surprised that his new partner is nothing like the straight-by-the-book “suit” he expects.Special Agent Isabel Adams is tough, fearless, determined, and every bit Sullivan’s equal. She’s also psychic. And blond.Skeptical of his new partner’s ability to get inside the mind of a killer, Sullivan can’t deny that Isabel has tuned in to the killer’s wavelength, is following the twisted thoughts of a murderer obsessed with stalking, seduction, and death. But in getting so close, Isabel has set herself up as the next victim. Now, with time running out, she and Rafe will find themselves forced to take the greatest risk of all, because this psychopath is playing for keeps and Isabel is the perfect trophy. Unable to turn back, Isabel may have already gone too far. Smart, savvy, and confident, she may find that the very qualities that have kept her alive could turn out to be her undoing. For Isabel has entered the world of a cold-blooded monster who kills without mercy and eludes every sense but one...the sense of evil.

I was checking authors and series I hadn't picked up in a while and came across the Kay Hooper's Bishop series. I went looking for my reviews of the other books and just couldn't resist picking it up. 

Hooper's killers are usually vicious creatures and this one was no exception. A serial killer preying on blonde successful women in a small town in the middle of no where. Bishop, who I was sorry to see mostly kept in the background, sends in two female agents to help the local law enforcement. One of them, Isabel Adams, fits the killer's victim type. The fact that she is a clairvoyant only helps her confirm that she is on his list.

Rafe Sullivan is the local chief of police. He is an intelligent man who realises immediately that Isabel can become the killer's next victim as soon as she arrives. But he needs the FBI's help and his willing to trust Bishop, and Isabel's, reasons. What follows is a mix of supernatural and logical “step by step” investigation that kept me interested in following them and curious about whom the killer might be and what might have been his reasons. I have been known to dislike plot twists that rely heavily in the supernatural element but I thought it particularly well done here.

I really enjoyed the characters. I loved how Hooper portrayed Rafe and Isabel and it was almost refreshing to read a romantic suspense novel where the main characters don't immediately feel the hots for each other. I also loved that Isabel took the lead (even if it was for all the wrong reasons) and forced Rafe to admit to his feelings, and I loved his reasoning for not having made his move earlier.

All in all a very good entry in this series and I'll be curious about where she will be taking us next and who will be entering Bishop's SCU next. I hope it doesn't take too long for Hollis to get her own story.

Grade: 4/5

 This read counts for the 2013 Romantic Suspense Reading Challenge