Poltergeist

by Kat Richardson

Book Overview

View our feature on Kat Richardson's Greywalker.

Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died-for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker-walking the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she's discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of "strange" cases.

In the days leading up to Halloween, Harper's been hired by a university research group that is attempting to create...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451461509
• ISBN13: 9780451461506
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

POLTERGEIST

I could not put this book down. Different and fun take on spirit world mystery. If you like Stephen King and Dean Koontz you might like this. Fun romp. I read the whole series.

Poltergeist

This is the second book in the Greywalker series and if you enjoy urban fantasies then you will enjoy this. The story pulls you in and once there you don't want to put the book down until you find out the whole story. Nice one!

Really good second installment

This was a good second installment. I wish the main Charactor was a little more confidant, but I love the Vamps in the story. I think as this author becomes more confidant in her writing the story line with flesh out too. I would recommend the third in the installment

fascinating paranormal inside a well constructed whodunit.

She was clinically dead for two minutes, but when private investigator Harper Blaine was revived, she discovered she was a Greywalker; someone who can cross over from the mortal plane to the paranormal realm of the Grey. There reside magical entities and energies that can cross over to the human realm when the connections are right. Harper is a rarity who can see these energies. Dr. Tuckman, a megalomaniac professor, has gathered eight people to help him create an artificial poltergeist with their mental energies assisting him. He succeeds when Celia Falwell comes into existence with empirical evidence to prove the phenomena exists. Dr. Tuckman hires Harper to find out who is creating tricks he did not authorize as Celia is becoming increasingly dangerous until she kills one of the team members and injures others. Harper assumes another member is controlling Celia and that psychotic is feeling euphoric over the first murder and has gone completely over the edge. Harper, a vampire and a detective work to dissipate the energy of the entity and to neutralize what they assume is a human killer. Urban fantasy fans will take immense delight in the latest Greywalker thriller as the heroine is at her best combining Dresden with Millhone. The story line is fast-paced hooking the audience from the onset when Tuckman explains Celia to Harper and never let's go until the final altercation as readers will wonder just what Celia is and could she have committed a homicide. POLTERGEIST is a terrific tale that sub-genre fans will appreciate as Kat Richardson combines the fascinating paranormal inside a well constructed whodunit. Harriet Klausner

Mind bender of a mixed genre (4.5 stars)

Just two minutes can change your life. Private investigator, Harper Blaine, was viciously attacked and died for a very short time before the doctors revived her. Or did they completely? Now, Harper sees dead people--or more specifically denizens of the Grey: ghosts, vampires, and such. She can also move in the Grey, their realm. Her previously mundane practice is now filled with clients seeking solutions to supernatural problems. Harper is doing her best to help despite having to proceed very cautiously while she learns about the Grey. Near Halloween, Harper's approached by Dr, Gartner Tuckman, an abnormal psychologist from fictionalized Pacific Northwest University (PNU). Tuckman and his cohort are attempting to re-create the "Philip experiment," a 1970's psychokinesis study conducted by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research. In this study, Canadian researchers attempted to get a group of subjects to create a poltergeist based upon a fictional character "Philip". The group was able to produce several psychokinetic effects, including moving a table, etc. The experiment demonstrated that a group of subjects' concentrated attention could create a psychokinetic event. (See links below) The problem with Tuckman's experiment is that the Celia, the poltergeist his subjects have conjured, has very high PK resonance and he's afraid that one of his assistants is somehow tampering with the setup. Worse, Celia shows signs of being dangerous. Within hours of Harper's involvement, one of Tuckman's assistants is killed by what could be a psychokinetic force. Harper's in a race to figure out how to use her novice knowledge of the Grey to find the killer and disband the psychokinetic energies before someone else is hurt. "Poltergeist" is a fascinating fictionalized look into the actual world of the paranormal. The storyline was riveting and well-plotted. Richardson lays out the clues for you in a journalistic fashion, which provides the clues a reader needs to solve the case. I'm also enjoying how much Harper Blaine and company have developed. Her supporting cast: including techno-wizard, Quentin; vampire, Carlos; and Grey consultants, Ben and Mara Danzinger, are all interesting and well worth seeing them return. Also, Ms. Richardson has spent a lot of time thinking out her magic system and how Harper's awareness of the Grey will grow with each time she walks within it. The reason for the .5 star deduction was how slowly the novel started. At one time, I attended a mystery writing workshop conducted by a published author of more than 50 books (at that time). He advised that your protagonist needs to find the body within the first 20 pages, preferably 10, or the reader will get lost. "Poltergeist" really didn't get started for me til page 41. I probably would have inserted death and danger a lot sooner into the book than Ms. Richardson did. I usually do not comment on others' reviews; however, Don D'Ammassa likens this series