Poltergeist (Greywalker, Book 2) [Paperback]

Kat Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2007

View our feature on Kat Richardson's Greywalker.

Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died-for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker-walking the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she's discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of "strange" cases.

In the days leading up to Halloween, Harper's been hired by a university research group that is attempting to create an artificial poltergeist. The head researcher suspects someone is faking the phenomena, but Harper's investigation reveals something else entirely-they've succeeded.

And when one of the group's members is killed in a brutal and inexplicable fashion, Harper must determine whether the killer is the ghost itself, or someone all too human.

Read Kat Richardson's posts on the Penguin Blog.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Richardson's clever ghost-busting follow-up to her solid urban fantasy debut (2006's Greywalker) finds psychic Seattle PI Harper Blaine investigating a deadly lab-made spook. Pacific Northwest University professor and psychologist Gartner Tuckman is trying to replicate the results of an actual '70s Canadian psychokinesis experiment by the Owen group, whose participants appeared to create a poltergeist. Tuckman's assistant, Mark Lupoldi, provides fake phenomena to encourage the subjects' belief in their psychic abilities, but soon the experiment begins producing off-the-charts evidence of an actual specter. Tuckman suspects a participant of meddling with the results and hires Blaine to investigate. When Lupoldi is murdered, Blaine consults a number of experts, including a former vampire client, before slipping into the Grey spirit world to track the thought-entity who might be responsible. Richardson's view of the paranormal has a nice technological twist and features intriguing historical notes that lift this whodunit a cut above the average supernatural thriller. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Greywalker (2006), Richardson's debut novel, introduced the character of Harper Blaine, a private investigator who, after having been clinically dead for two minutes, now straddles the line between the living and the dead. With the ability to pass back and forth between this world and the Grey world—where monsters are real, and evil is not an abstract concept—she is uniquely equipped to handle cases with paranormal connections. Here, Harper is hired to find out who has been faking results in a university-sponsored investigation into poltergeists. When (naturally) someone turns up dead, Harper must determine whether the killer is human or something else. Like its predecessor, this novel is only a partial success. It's as though Richardson takes it for granted that readers will buy into the Grey world and doesn't feel she has to work too hard to make it feel real. Consequently, her portrayal of the Grey world and its inhabitants lacks texture. Still, readers who like their mysteries laced with a dash of the paranormal may enjoy this one, if they keep their expectations in the mid range. Pitt, David

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Roc Trade (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451461509
• ISBN-13: 978-0451461506
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #719,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of the Greywalker paranormal detective novels. Kat is a former theater brat and non-fiction editor who currently lives on a boat in Washington state with her husband and the ghosts of ferrets. She also rides a motorcycle, shoots target pistol, and makes trouble.

In the past, she helped develop a fan-built PC game (T2X), wrote a short horror screenplay (The Glove), taught English Country Dance, fenced epee, broke both arms, wrote about diamonds, ate alligator (no, she didn't kill it), sold dead lizards, pretended to be a nun, sang, and has been kidnapped by pirates! (well... maybe not pirates....)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The series continues..., September 8, 2007

By 

Cheryl A. Reynolds "Spuddie" (Minneapolis, MN, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poltergeist (Greywalker, Book 2) (Paperback)

Second in the Harper Blaine "Greywalker" paranormal series, featuring a young woman P.I. who died for two minutes and since that time is able to walk the world that exists between the living and the dead, known as "the Grey." In this book, Harper is hired by a college professor who is running experiments to see if the collective minds of a group of people can make their own poltergeist. He wants her to figure out whom, if anyone, is faking some phenomenon that have begun to crop up, or else authenticate that the experiment has worked and is valid. When one of the participants of the group ends up dead--beaten and mangled--in his apartment, Harper sets out to find whether the energy entity that has become Celia, the poltergeist, did Mark in or whether he was killed by someone all too human.

I enjoyed this book a lot; I wish we had the option of giving half-stars here at Amazon, as I'd give it four-and-a-half. It certainly did have an interesting premise and storyline, though it did take me a good 50 pages to really get sucked in to the story. The only downfall for me is that Harper still feels somewhat "dry" to me--even though we learn more *about* her, what she likes, dislikes, what's important to her, we haven't yet really been shown who she is...the messy parts, the 'soul' of Harper seem to be sitting there just beyond our grasp. It's hard to explain just what I mean. Still, this is a series I enjoy and I am defintely looking forward to the next one, and hope to get to know Harper even better next time around.

One thing I really appreciate is that there isn't a bunch of gratuitous sex and continual sexual tension between Harper and every male she encounters like in some paranormal books. I mean, after all, if I want romance and erotica, I'll read books from those genres!

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind bender of a mixed genre (4.5 stars), August 8, 2007

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poltergeist (Greywalker, Book 2) (Paperback)

Just two minutes can change your life.

Private investigator, Harper Blaine, was viciously attacked and died for a very short time before the doctors revived her.

Or did they completely? Now, Harper sees dead people--or more specifically denizens of the Grey: ghosts, vampires, and such. She can also move in the Grey, their realm. Her previously mundane practice is now filled with clients seeking solutions to supernatural problems. Harper is doing her best to help despite having to proceed very cautiously while she learns about the Grey.

Near Halloween, Harper's approached by Dr, Gartner Tuckman, an abnormal psychologist from fictionalized Pacific Northwest University (PNU). Tuckman and his cohort are attempting to re-create the "Philip experiment," a 1970's psychokinesis study conducted by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research. In this study, Canadian researchers attempted to get a group of subjects to create a poltergeist based upon a fictional character "Philip". The group was able to produce several psychokinetic effects, including moving a table, etc. The experiment demonstrated that a group of subjects' concentrated attention could create a psychokinetic event. (See links below)

The problem with Tuckman's experiment is that the Celia, the poltergeist his subjects have conjured, has very high PK resonance and he's afraid that one of his assistants is somehow tampering with the setup. Worse, Celia shows signs of being dangerous.

Within hours of Harper's involvement, one of Tuckman's assistants is killed by what could be a psychokinetic force. Harper's in a race to figure out how to use her novice knowledge of the Grey to find the killer and disband the psychokinetic energies before someone else is hurt.

"Poltergeist" is a fascinating fictionalized look into the actual world of the paranormal. The storyline was riveting and well-plotted. Richardson lays out the clues for you in a journalistic fashion, which provides the clues a reader needs to solve the case.

I'm also enjoying how much Harper Blaine and company have developed. Her supporting cast: including techno-wizard, Quentin; vampire, Carlos; and Grey consultants, Ben and Mara Danzinger, are all interesting and well worth seeing them return.

Also, Ms. Richardson has spent a lot of time thinking out her magic system and how Harper's awareness of the Grey will grow with each time she walks within it.

The reason for the .5 star deduction was how slowly the novel started. At one time, I attended a mystery writing workshop conducted by a published author of more than 50 books (at that time). He advised that your protagonist needs to find the body within the first 20 pages, preferably 10, or the reader will get lost. "Poltergeist" really didn't get started for me til page 41. I probably would have inserted death and danger a lot sooner into the book than Ms. Richardson did.

I usually do not comment on others' reviews; however, Don D'Ammassa likens this series to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake. My concern in this matter is that some readers who have stopped reading Ms. Hamilton will be put off by the comparison. The "Greywalker" series has limited erotic content and the violence is kept to a necessary level. I could even recommend these books to a literate and intelligent young adult reader without fear of parental wrath.

I believe Harper Blaine is much closer to Tanya Huff's Victory Nelson of the "Blood Books," which actually were the first female supernatural detective novels to my knowledge.

[...]

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting New Sequel, August 27, 2007

By 

SciFiChick "The SciFiChick" (Fishers, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Poltergeist (Greywalker, Book 2) (Paperback)

Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson, is the sequel to Greywalker.

Private Investigator, Harper Blaine has been hired to investigate a psychological experiment where the participants have supposedly created a poltergeist. With just the power of their minds. Since the phenomena have been suspiciously over-the-top, Dr. Tuckman believes that one of the participants is somehow tampering with the equipment and somehow fabricating the phenomena. But when a student is maliciously murdered, Harper discovers that each one of the participants have secrets, as well as Tuckman. And one of them is a psychopathic killer.

While I'm not really interested in the paranormal, Richardson is a truly talented writer that pulls me into the story. Each of the characters is unique and fun. Some of my favorites from Greywalker are back, and Harper's long-distance relationship becomes predictably strained.

Of course, when a story involved poltergeist and unexplained phenomena, the story is going to be suspenseful. But I think I would have enjoyed this book even if it just revolved around the character interaction. From Harper's reaction to a rambunctious child to her dealings with the vampire Carlos, whether I can relate or not, I'm hooked.