Psychic Sunshine Meadows makes a dark discovery in the woods…

After clearing her name as the prime suspect in a murder, Sunny Meadows hopes she can finally enjoy some serenity in the idyllic town of Divinity in upstate New York. She’d also like a second chance with Detective Mitch Stone. But when Mitch’s gorgeous ex-girlfriend Isabel Gonzales shows up, Sunny’s not sure she can compete. Then Isabel mysteriously disappears.

When the police turn to Sunny for help, her visions lead to the discovery of Isabel’s corpse in the woods. Before she died, Isabel scrawled a message in the dirt implicating Mitch in her murder. Now Sunny must help the man she’s falling in love with as she sets out to find the real killer. But this time Sunny’s clairvoyant abilities might not save her—as what she doesn’t see can hurt her…

Review

Sunny Meadows didn’t see it coming. She longs to get closer to Detective Mitch Stone, but now his beautiful ex-girlfriend Isabel Gonzales has arrived in town. Isabel isn’t impressed by the small town of Divinity, New York, but she’s still crazy about Mitch and is determined to get a second chance with him. Before Isabel can convince Mitch they should get back together, she is murdered and the evidence points to Mitch. Since Sunny is a psychic, she uses her talents to help Detective Bob Fuller with the investigation. Detective Fuller thinks there’s a good chance Mitch is guilty, but Sunny is convinced that Isabel has made enemies and that Mitch is not the murderer. Unfortunately, Sunny has a vision that seems to further implicate Mitch. Now Sunny will do whatever it takes to prove Mitch is innocent, even when it looks like their romance is at a dead end.

This book started out like an early Victoria Laurie Psychic Eye Mystery, but then quickly faded like a vision. Apparently Sunny can use other methods of looking into the future, but in this book, she uses a crystal ball. This is different from many books featuring psychics and I like that unique twist. However, Sunny does an initial reading using a crystal ball in the beginning of the book that helps to set up the story, but there are very few instances Sunny using her psychic talents after that. When the main character of a book is a psychic, I like to see those talents in action throughout the story as an important part of the story and also who the character is, not just a gimmick. This isn’t a bad book and the mystery is interesting with some unexpected twists, but it could have been so much more.

I enjoyed reading about Sunny’s relationship with Mitch, and it’s obvious to her best friend Jo as well as the reader that they care about each other and have plenty of chemistry. However for someone who can see into the future, Sunny has a lot of misunderstandings with the people in her life and makes false assumptions leading to some very poor decisions. Although some of these bad judgment calls advance the story, they still get old as well as lower my opinion of Sunny’s intelligence.

Corpse in the Crystal Ball is the second book in this series, and I think I may have missed some of the backstory about Sunny and her parents. I didn’t understand why they have such a bad relationship, but I can see that their interference in her life would cause problems. One good thing about this is it leads to Sunny’s hilarious grandmother “Granny Gert” showing up on Sunny’s door and Granny’s character is one of the highlights of the book. Her secret to passing her driving test is one that could be a lot of trouble in real life, but makes a funny subplot in the fictional world of Divinity. I also like Sunny, Jo, and Mitch but don’t feel I got to know them in depth. I would like the chance to get to know them further and I did find myself rooting for Sunny and Mitch to succeed as a couple. I enjoyed the book and with more of an emphasis on the psychic part of Sunny’s character in future installments, this could become a series I follow regularly.

Reviewed by Christine

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