Title: A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO READ (Read 16 of 2009)
Author: William Rabkin
Date Published: January 2009
Series: Psych #1
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Rating: C
ISBN: 978-0-451-22635-8

Back blurb:

Trained to be a detective by his father, blessed with astounding powers of observation and deduction, and cursed with a refusal to take anything seriously, Shawn Spencer has convinced everyone he's psychic. Now, with his best friend, Gus, he's either going to clean up… or be found out.

With eighty-seven parking tickets to their credit, it doesn't take a psychic to predict what happens when Shawn and Gus go to pick up Gus's impounded car: They get busted. Shawn is convinced they've stumbled across a criminal conspiracy, but Gus just wants to get away intact. Unfortunately, the fleeing Gus is run over by a speeding Mercedes.

When he wakes up in the hospital, things have gotten even worse. Because while Gus was unconscious, Shawn picked up a new sidekick: Tara Larison, a beautiful woman who insists she's Shawn's psychic slave … and who won't leave them alone until she's fulfilled every one of Shawn's desires.

But when Shawn's enemies start turning up dead, the pair must figure out if it's the work of the criminal conspiracy they've discovered-or Shawn's subconscious, sending his new minion out to do his dirty work.

This was an okay read, the characterizations were pretty spot on across the board, but the book just moved very slowly for me. Everything ties together nicely and Shawn, as always, prevails. There were some interesting secondary characters, but again I just felt the pacing was a bit off. I will say, the author's vision of Henry's new pastime was comical - and the reasoning for his getting involved in it was believable.

Overall, an average read, nothing to get excited about but as the characterizations were well done I can't say it's a waste of time.

©Susan Falk and phantomroses.com