Eye of the Beholder
Shari Shattuck
Signet, Sep 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451221995

In the Los Angeles suburb Shadow Hills, The Eye of the Beholder Beauty Salon and day Spa is opened for business. Dario and Greer Sands own the shop and are close friends always there for one another. Greer is a psychic who has visions about future events. She currently has a strong sense that evil engulfs the town like a fog. She also has a vision of meeting three women who become her friends.

One of the trio is Whitney who is having problems with her stepdaughter Joy. Another is Leah whom she meets at the bank where Greer also gets bad vibes from the manager, Leah's abusive ex-husband. At the spa she meets Jenny who is angry that her spouse refuses to help her with her fledgling business. Greer and her seventeen years old son Joshua have visions of of Joy in danger; when she is abducted they assume her captor is the sadistic predator who has struck before and killed once. Joshua keeps having visions until a spirit guide gives him clues where Joy can be fond, Greer has visions of Leah in peril.

Shari Shattuck is an eloquent storyteller whose special talent resides in her characters; realistic good and evil people who elicit reactions from readers. This is the first time Joshua's gift manifests itself and he has problems adjusting to his inheritance, but he bravely heeds what he sees to rescue Joy. There are several viable suspects who could be the murderer or at least committed criminal acts. That is the fun in this paranormal mystery as the audience tries to guess who the sadistic predatory killer is before the Sands run out of time.

Harriet Klausner