Cecelia Tishy All in One Piece

All in One Piece

Cecelia Tishy

Mysterious, March 2006, $24.95, 307 pp.

ISBN 0892967978

After divorcing her wealthy husband and losing much of her income, psychic Reggie Cutter moves into the townhouse she inherited from her aunt Jo in Boston's South End. Jo was a psychic who helped the police on many cases, and Reggie is following in her footsteps. Her life takes a dangerous twist when she gets hit by a car. Her upstairs tenant Steven Damelin sees the incident and believes it was an accident not someone deliberately trying to kill her. After getting her fixed up, Stephen talks about a deal that Jo was going to invest in, and asks Reggie if she is interested. She puts him off.

That night she hears strange noises, and the next morning she sees blood dripping from Steve's apartment into hers; she opens his door and sees him lying on his floor, the victim of a gruesome murder. Since she is involved the police don't want her working the case. She intends to listen to them, but she has a vision of Steve in water and a piece of wood hitting him. She decides to do her own investigation by interviewing plenty of suspects who had reason to kill him, and almost winds up getting killed by a murderer without mercy.

ALL IN ONE PIECE is a charming amateur sleuth mystery with the eccentric cast of characters adding humor to this who-done-it. The protagonist is a down to earth person who thinks of her psychic powers as a tool to be used as one more investigative method, while readers will look at her as the kind neighbor next door that everyone likes. Cecelia Tishy has a knack for creating a plausible mystery with a paranormal twist.