Recently Discovered- Carolyn Crane

Mind Games

By: Carolyn Crane

Genre: Fiction, Urban Fantasy (Yes, I said it)
Rating: R
Grade: B+
Sticking with the Author: Yes, second book in the series comes out in September.

Ever since I got sucked into Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse world (the series upon which the HBO series TrueBlood is based), I have occasionally taken her advice on new reads. I generally don't mind a little romp in the Urban Fantasy genre, though my tolerance for vampire and werewolf novels is relatively low. I don't want to have to learn an entire new language or caste of people populating a new reality. It's too much for me. I have a hard enough time with English and my own socio-economic realities, thank you very much.

But, I like a little Sherrilyn Kenyon every now and again (though I greatly prefer her League series to the Darkhunters- which has become way over played). And when I don't have anything better to read, I often go back to the old reliable JD Robb "In Death" series. Innocent, though slightly embarrassing distractions. I needed some brain candy after my last book.

I was pleasantly surprised with Carolyn Crane's debut novel, Mind Games. No vampires, no werewolves, no fairies- thank you Jesus! We meet Justine (Crane should have really rethought the heroine's name), who is a full blown hypochondriac, convinced she is going to die from vein star disease (which sounds like something like an aneurysm). Her mother was a bit of a health freak too, but actually died of the disease when Justine was only 13. She is crippled in fear and hospital debt from the late night ER visits where no one can find anything wrong. Crane's prose was fascinating, making one wonder if she, herself, may of had more than a few late night calls to the hospital. Justine knows she is irrational, but can't help herself.

She goes to dinner one night with her oh-so-very-normal boyfriend, Chubby (yes, unfortunate on the name front) and meets the owner of the restaurant, Packard. Packard has the ability to see a person's psychological structure (referred to as a hicap) and can see our girl, Justine, is about a hop, skip and a jump from the psych ward. Seems Packard has the ability to siphon on Justine's bad juju and fear and make her feel normal, but there's a catch. Packard wants to teach Justine how to dump her bad stuff into bad people in an attempt to "disillusion" them. This is basically an attempt to play on the fears and neurosis of criminals and reboot them, make them better people. She isn't the only one. Seem Packard has gather a rather motley little crew of people that shoot their brand of fear into others, giving them both the freedom to live without their stifling brand of psychological poison and the added bonus of being a rather well paid vigilante.

Of course, nothing is as it seems. Packard never leaves his restaurant and you find he is actually incapable of it. Further, his own freedom may just be more important to him then his little troop of disillusionists. And Justine is hella attracted to Packard (and visa versa), even after she finds the web of lies he has spun. And we have a gorgeously neurotic police chief, Otto Sanchez (I know, seriously with these names?) Oh, which beautiful boy to trust?

I liked Justine. She was imperfect and believable. You putt all your eggs in her basket, as it were and her well-being becomes quickly important to you. I felt Packard's character had a great start, but his development quickly drowned midway through. Also, I do think there were just too many characters to keep track of. The main disillusionists were well developed and necessary to the storyline, I just felt like she was popping extras in for the hell of it. It was hard to keep everyone's brand of crazy straight.

Overall, a quick read (though actually pretty long for the genre- 384 pages), thoroughly entertaining and surprising. I was actually quite impressed with the writing. Though sparse, Crane has a way of describing things in wholly unexpected ways. I liked that though she described the physical dimensions of those around her, she (and by extension the reader) relate more to their psychological characteristics. The book could have ended where it was, but it appears as though there will be three in total. The next in the series comes out in September- Double Cross. Lavar already pre-ordered it for me, so I'm looking forward to it.