RUNNING HOT by Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Ann Krentz is recognized as a skilled and interesting writer be it under this name or as Amanda Quick or as Jayne Castle. She always has storylines that grab the reader and hold them throughout her stories. As Jayne Ann Krentz she has written a series of books concerning the fictional Arcane Society, a group dedicated to the study and enhancement of psychic phenomena. The latest book in this series is RUNNING HOT.
In this book we meet Grace, a young woman who can detect and understand various psychic auras. She is hired by the Arcane Society to go to Hawaii to study and identify a man named Eubanks. Her partner is to be an ex-cop named Luther. They are to work together as a team.
In Hawaii these two immediately fall in lust with each other. Their auras mesh or something like that. They also have psychic gifts that complement each other which is a good thing because they come up against an opera diva who can kill by hitting some deadly high notes.
Also involved in the murder and mayhem is a group known as “Nightshade.” This group has developed a drug that will heighten psychic sensitivity and that is a no no for the Arcane Society. They have to be stopped.
Krentz tells this story with a lot of action and a lot of sex in the mix. She is also great at creating interesting characters who speak funny and frenetic dialogue. But nothing she can do overrides the silliness of the psychic powers and the endless discussion of auras. It just gets old and it gets boring.
Perhaps you will be more interested in this “new” world than I was. Krentz had me for a few chapters but than I was done. Unfortunately the book wasn’t. There were still pages and pages of deadly divas and menacing “nightshaders.”
I will still look forward to other stories by Krentz or Quick or Castle but just not one designated “An Arcane Society Novel.” I have had my fill of that speciality for the time being.
RUNNING HOT is published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. It contains 337 pages and sells for $25.95.