Customer Reviews

Psych: The Call of the Mild

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Ellen Svaco walks into Psych, it sounds like she has a simple case. She's lost her favorite necklace while on a class field trip to Pasadena, and she wants Shawn to help her find it. It only takes Shawn a few minutes to find it when he and Gus make the trip, but before they can return to the car, they are robbed at gunpoint by a mime.

Suspicions raised, they return to Santa Barbara to confront their client and figure out the truth. However, they arrive at Ellen's house to find she has been murdered. Why was that necklace so important? And what is really going on?

First things first, if you have not read the back of the book (or the official description here on Amazon), don't! While it is accurate, it spoils much of the story and will leave you impatient waiting for those events to happen. Fortunately, I had been warned before hand, so that wasn't an issue for me.

The issue for me is that the plot felt cobbled together. There were just too many elements, side trips, and sub-plots. This really became obvious at the climax which was so rushed I had to reread it to see if it even made sense. (It does.)

I did enjoy spending time with Shawn and Gus, and laughed quite a bit at their antics. Henry also gets some nice page time, and I like what happened with Henry and Shawn's relationship.

The book is a fast read, and fans of the show will enjoy it. But the other books have been stronger.

If you like the USA series, you will LOVE these books! They are written exactly as Shawn and/or Gus would speak the lines in the show. I thoroughly enjoy these Psych books!

I enjoyed this book a lot. Shawn and Gus end up at a bonding retreat in the wilderness with their client's employees, and one of them is a murderer. As the retreat goes on, there are all kinds of antics of course, but as Shawn and Gus are trying to figure out who the killer is, the killer is bumping them off, one at a time. Just when you think you know who the killer is, the story takes another turn and you begin to suspicion someone else. That's what happens to Shawn and Gus too who finally figure it out just in time. Just like their TV show, Shawn and Gus make the best of the situation even though they are out of their element for sure in this one. Their characters are portrayed exactly as on the show with Shawn all laid back and taking it easy no matter what the situation and Gus worrying over everything and the perfect straight man to Shawn. I liked that I wasn't sure who the killer was until the end and that up to that point, the suspect kept changing. A nice little who dunnit. I found myself not wanting to put down the book because I wanted to see what would happen next. I recommend it.

I have three requirements when it comes to tie-in novels: a well-written plot; that the characters behave the way they behave on the show/movie; and that there's internal action as well as external, or in other words, that the story isn't just fluff. It's important to me that we see something deeper about the characters, in who they are as people and in their relationships to each other; when I read a "Monk" book, for instance, it's all very well and good to have Monk hilariously freaking out on an airplane ("I need a Bible." / "You're not a religious man." / "If I'm about to meet God, I want to have His best-seller in hand.") -- but the reason I love Lee Goldberg's tie-in novels so much is because of the way he shows how much Monk and Natalie, for all their quibbling, care about each other; or because his encounter with a John-Edward-esque character shows us how much Trudy's death affected him and is affecting him still; or because solving a case with his brother gives Monk the chance to help build up his brother's confidence, which he does with love, in the end. I want the characters to behave the way they do on the show, and I want the plot to be _interesting_ -- but if the author drops the ball in getting the Story to _matter_, it doesn't matter how good the other two points are. I won't care.

This was my first "Psych" novel despite the fact that it's third in the series; the description on the back cover, however, made the book sound simply too impossibly fun for me to wait to read (even if it generally burns my soul to read/watch things out of order). Rabkin is actually a frequent writing partner of Lee Goldberg's -- the two of them have penned episodes of both "Monk" and "Psych" -- and so, as with Goldberg's "Monk" novels, we are given a line of books by an author who has actually written scripts for the show the books are based on.

Which may be why, like the "Monk" books, I found the "Psych" books to be spot-on in their characterization. Shawn is Shawn, Gus is Gus (and, indeed, since the book was primarily from Gus's point of view, we got some treatful insights into his character), and Shawn's father Henry is _delightfully_ Shawn's father -- his scenes were some of my favorite in the book. Lassiter was also spot-on, though due to the nature of the plot he couldn't be featured in more than a few scenes; and O'Hara was in the book only two or three times, so I can't really say if I found her to be in-character or not -- which is fine, given, again, the nature of the plot.

The plot itself was interesting -- a sort of Boston-Legalized version of Christie's "And Then There Were None." (One word of warning: the back copy of the book makes it sound like it's something it's not. While Shawn and Gus do spend half the book traipsing around the woods, they do only spend _half_ the book there -- and when they're there, they're not so much complaining about dealing with freeze-dried pineapple as they are trying to unmask a killer before anyone else (including, perhaps, one of them) dies. I wish I could have read the book without back-cover expectations, because I feel I can't fairly say how I found the pacing to be; I was busy waiting for the story I'd read summarized to kick into gear, and so when it turned out to really be a different story (albeit a good one), it was too late to read it more objectively. (Whoever wrote that back copy did a poor job of it.))

But that's really beside the point. What's important is that "The Call of the Mild" achieved the single most important thing to me: meaning. It was _about_ something, something that made the mystery more than just a puzzle to be solved, but turned it into something with high stakes and high costs. I loved Gus not being able to meet Shawn's eyes when they were being held hostage (but not for the reasons you'd think); I loved Shawn offering to drop the case for Gus's sake. I _really_ loved the final reveal of Shawn's recurring nightmare -- that was _brilliant_, and the perfect example of the ... the _more_ that I need in all my stories. The ending had me tearing up a bit.

And it's also worth mentioning that this is the _funniest_ book I've read in quite some time. In fact, it's more than that -- while I'm sure I've laughed just as hard (and just as often) at Dave Barry's non-fiction books, this has to be, hands down, the funniest _novel_ I have ever read. (The scene with the mime was absolutely priceless.)

So, a great book, with a great mystery, well-recommended to any "Psych" fan (or possibly even to those of you who are not). You won't be disappointed.

This book takes Shawn and Gus out of their element (Santa Barbara, proper) and into the wilderness. I thought this would be a negative, but Rabkin handles it quite well. Turns out that this is so far one of the best of the series (I put it at a very distant #2 to Mind-Altering Murder). Worth checking out if you like the show, despite the unusual setting for the characters.

I would have given it 4 stars if it wasn't for the ending. I won't give away any spoilers, but I thought it was rather ridiculous.

It took me a minute to get into the book but once I finally did it read just like an episode of Psych. I will be getting the rest of them.

As with "Psych: Mind over Magic", I was disappointed by the summary of the book as it only covered the second half/third of the story. The following is what should be the TRUE summary of the book: "Psych is hired to find a necklace lost by an elementary school teacher, which is simple enough until they're threatened by a mime at gunpoint. When the elementary school teacher that hired them comes up dead, Shawn and Gus trace the trail of the mime to a rich and prestigious law firm and are hired to scout out a spy and a murderer within the ranks. The job lands them in the middle of a week-long corporate retreat that turns out to be from their worst nightmares. And when a camper turns up dead, Shawn and Gus will have to figure out who the killer is before one of them runs off a cliff."

As a hilarious yet serious book, "Psych: The Call of the Mild" is a perfect addition to the books that tie-in to the TV series we all love. Once again, like with the previous two books, I loved the witty banter between the characters and the character development that occurred over the course of the book. With the case of not one but two recurring nightmares and Shawn's usual witty banter along with Gus's typical funny thoughts on the situations that Shawn keeps landing them in, "Psych: The Call of the Mild" is something any die-hard "Psych" fan should read.

My only complaint is the few typos and misplaced words in this book such as "Shawn" instead of "Gus" and a misplaced word that reads "what" instead of what it should be. Hopefully the printers will take care of this with the next print run.

Overall, Psych - Call of the Mild is an okay read. Too many elements don't work or don't seem to fit logically into the story. Indeed, Shawn seems to be in poor form when it comes to deducing things, particularly towards the end when people are getting killed. The identity of the killer was obvious if you've read a few mystery books, and the ending doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Indeed, the conclusion felt rushed, almost if the author was bored with it and wanted to finish it off and work on something better.

The Psych books keep you interested throughout the storyline, but never seem to have a strong ending. I still like them, but I hope the author will strengthen the endings from now on.

When Shawn and Gus are hired by a school teacher to find her missing necklace, they think it's going to be a simple case. When several people end up murdered because of it, Shawn's retired father gets pulled into the case. While Shawn and Gus promise not to get involved in the murder investigation, they decide to follow the trail of the necklace. But they soon find themselves in the middle of a wilderness for a corporate retreat, with a murderer picking off their group one by one.

Based on the extremely funny, mystery series from the USA Network, Psych follows the adventures of fake psychic detective Shawn Spencer and his partner Burton Guster (Gus). The two often partner with the local Santa Barbara Police Department as consultants. Again, Rabkin has deftly written the two loveable and goofy characters with precision.

This installment again takes the dynamic duo on a dangerous adventure. The mystery itself is complex with several surprises along the way. Fans of the show should be sure to check out these tie-ins. This may be my favorite of the Pysch novels so far. There is always loads of laughs and plenty of suspense, and this latest doesn't disappoint.