Second Sight

June 29, 2009
In Shuman's smooth fourth thriller to feature blind psychic Sherry Moore (after Lost Girls
), Sherry, who can “visualize the last memories of dead people,” is exposed to radioactive cesium 137 while trying to discern what caused an outbreak of possible hantavirus in New Mexico. Back in Philadelphia for tests and treatment, she touches the body of mental patient Thomas J. Monahan, an army private during the Korean War who was used in a government mind-control experiment in 1950. Thomas's residual memories concern Area 17, a secret base in Mount Tamathy, N.Y., where a weapon was developed by Nobel Prize–winner Edward Case. Edward's handsome sociopath stepson, Troy Weir, sets out to dispose of Sherry and anyone else who might squeal about Area 17. While Sherry investigates Thomas's past, she becomes attracted to Troy, much to the dismay of her Navy SEAL fiancé. Series fans will root for the likable Sherry, but they may find the ending too downbeat.