Lee Killough, Killer Karma

Killer Karma

Lee Killough

Meisha Marlin, August 2005, $23.95, 304 pp.

ISBN 1592220061

He finds himself in a parking garage not knowing who he is but certain that someone murdered him. It takes him a while to realize that he is Detective Cole Donovan of the San Francisco Police Department, working on an arson and burglary case. He realizes he is a ghost when nobody sees or hears him and by his ability to walk through walls and doors. He was meeting an informant Sarah Benay, and he hoped that she had enough information to take the owner of Flaxx Enterprises, Donald Flaxx, down because in one of his stores that was torched, a foreman died, making him an accessory to murder.

His informant Sarah has disappeared, and since his body has not been found, the police think they ran off together. Cole wants his wife to know the truth about the meetings with Sarah, not what the police think. Using his ghostly powers, he convinces his former partner Razor, once he gets over the shock of seeing Cole as a ghost, to help him find out why he was killed, who murdered him and how it relates to Flaxx Enterprises. Even when Cole discovers who the killer is, Razor has no way of obtaining a warrant because he can't explain how he came by the knowledge.

Lee Killough has written a totally enthralling and spellbinding paranormal police procedural. The protagonist is a ghost who bumbles and fumbles as he learns to use his ghostly powers, once he discovers what they are. His instincts and experience help him find the perpetrators, and he uses spirit tricks to rattle the various suspects into making mistakes. KILLER KARMA is an enjoyable and entertaining reading experience that is destined for this reviewer's keeper shelf.