I've been trying to clear some space in the TBR stack, and participating in Literary Escapism's latest Mini-Challenge, so I busted out P.D. Martin's debut Sophie Anderson title, Body Count. Martin is one of the latest additions to the Murderati lineup, sharing Sundays with Allison Brennan. In the series, Sophie Anderson is a profiler from Australia who's recently transferred to the FBI. Her brother was kidnapped when she was a child, and she dreamed about it as it was happening. Now, her psychic abilities have resurfaced as a serial killer hits DC. When her friend and fellow agent, Sam, becomes the latest of the killer's victims, Sophie begins to test her ability in hopes that it will help her solve the case.
I like the premise of this series. And Sophie is a pretty good lead based on this first outing. I wasn't blown away, though. I thought the killer was obvious, but I wasn't sure if it was meant to be. Body Count is also a little more procedural than some of the other psychic investigators I've come across. The forensics explanations felt a little too informative, but given that the book was released in 2005 (2007 in the US), it could be that it was still early days of the forensics trend and the author felt it was necessary. I'm actually anxious to get to the follow up titles to see if some of this smooths out (which I expect it to seeing as this was Martin's debut).
I sort of feel like most of the issues (and let's admit it, they were small) come from this being a first book. I've got two more in the series in the TBR right now and am looking forward to getting back to Sophie and seeing what happens next. I think I want the series to be a little more seated in the psychic thing than the profiling right now, though.
There are now 5 (6 counting an ebook) books in the Sophie Anderson series:
Body Count
The Murderer's Club
Fan Mail
The Killing Hands
Kiss of Death
Coming Home
Body Count looks to be currently out of print. Some of the later titles are still available in paperback while others are ebook only at this point (have I mentioned that I hate that? I guess it's better than being completely out of print, but as someone who can't stand technology because it goes wrong at every possible, terrible moment, I've got no plans to invest in an ereader at this point.)
2 comments:
a little more procedural than some of the other psychic investigators I've come across.
It's marketed as a crime series in Australia. The psychic thing is just a little twist to separate it from all the other crime series. Crime's the most popular genre in Oz, I think.
She is a fed, so it's not that I wasn't expecting it to be more of a procedural, but I was definitely in the mood for something with a little more emphasis on the psychic twist, kind of like the George Shuman and the Terri Persons series (though I can't recall offhand if either of those protags were in law enforcement or only consultants).
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