Monday, May 31, 2010

Amaryllis

Amaryllis by Jayne Castle

Amaryllis Lark is one of the best psychic detectives on St. Helen’s, the earth colony recently cut off from the mother planet, yet not so very different from home. Lucas Trent, the rugged head of Lodestar Exploration, isn’t keen on the prim type—and from her crisp business suit to her cool evaluation of his request to bust a corporate thief, beautiful Amaryllis is excruciatingly proper. But when a bold hunch heats up into a twisting murder investigation, by-the-book Amaryllis must let her guard down and break some rules—and a red-hot love affair ignites. Now, as they race to solve a puzzle of deadly intrigue, no power—otherwordly or otherwise—can keep them apart!
--Amaryllis by Jayne Castle, Copyright ©1996 by Jayne Ann Krentz, published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

My Review

After reading the story, I found the blurb on the back a wee bit misleading. It says Amaryllis is a psychic detective, but that’s not what she is. She’s a level-10 prism talent, able to help non-prism talents focus their own psychic talents. Sort of like the way eyeglasses help you see better…everything comes into focus and you can concentrate better. And the earth colony wasn’t “recently” cut off…the cut off happened nearly two hundred years ago, St. Helen’s time.

Yeah, I know…picky, picky…back to the review.

Lucas is in need of a high-level prism to help him focus his own off-the-charts talent so he can find out who’s selling his company secrets. Amaryllis is the only one at Psynergy, Inc. who can properly help him channel his talent, despite the fact that she doesn’t believe in his theory. She accompanies him to a reception where the initial mystery is solved, but the unexpected arousing side-effect of combining their two powers almost gets the better of them.

Though Lucas is satisfied that the mystery is solved, Amaryllis isn’t, and she makes a connection to the recent death of a dear friend and mentor. Despite Lucas’ objections, she begins to dig into his death and finds there’s more to his passing than was previously suspected. Local politics, past scandals and corporate rivalries interfere with, but do nothing to dampen the feelings that are growing between Lucas and Amaryllis. Can they resolve the feelings they have for each other and get to the bottom of the mystery before time runs out for them both?


I give this story FIVE STARS.

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