Psychic medium Simon Kincaide and his boyfriend, Myrtle Beach homicide detective Vic D’Amato, find that the only thing more frightening than murder might be navigating their first holiday season as a couple.

A trip back to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving with Vic’s large, exuberant family means dodging old frenemies and a bitter ex-boyfriend. A cold case comes back to haunt Vic when a murdered woman’s ghost begs Simon for justice. Then a new murder back in Myrtle Beach looks suspiciously familiar, and the dead man’s ghost isn’t playing nice. When Simon gets a vision of the next victim before the crime occurs, he realizes that all the murders are supernaturally linked. Catching the murderer will take his psychic sleuthing skills along with Vic’s street smarts to avert a tragedy. Can they do right by ghosts past, present and yet-to-come without ending up in the crosshairs of a killer for Christmas?

How was it?

In this one-and-a-half entry in the Badlands series Simon and Vic have been dating for months, Simon is an official consultant for the Myrtle Beach Police, and Vic has even moved in with him. The psychic medium is now embarking on an important step in his relationship with Vic, meeting his in-laws.

The couple travels to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and we quickly get introduced to the people that were in Vic’s life before Myrtle Beach. But Simon having the abilities he has makes this family event a little more exciting and dangerous. This novella has a nice rhythm and balance to it. Where Badlands felt like we were entering Simon’s world, this one is a bit of the opposite. It’s Vic’s world – at least his old one – that we’re navigating but it’s through Simon’s eyes and abilities. Vic had a traumatic brush with the supernatural in the past but now that Simon is by his side things are different, the pair can use both of their strengths to get to the bottom of the visions that plague Simon. The investigation manages to get dark despite the holiday cheer that the D’Amato clan brings to the story. We get to meet other members of “the people in the know” referenced in the author’s other works. My only grip with this story is that it conveniently wraps up in Myrtle Beach.

This novella is fun and wonderful, it has vindication, a decent mystery, a lot of tension, and a nice family/holiday feel.

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