Review--Sense of Deception by Victoria Laurie

In "New York Times" bestselling author Victoria Laurie s newest Psychic Eye Mystery, Abby Cooper senses a convicted killer is innocent, but she ll need hard evidence to save the woman before it s too late. A ticked-off judge has tossed Abby in the slammer for contempt of court, and during her brief but unpleasant stay she learns the story of a condemned woman who is facing a far more serious sentence. Skylar Miller has been found guilty of murder and faces the death penalty. Everyone believes she's guilty, including her own family and her ex-husband everyone, that is, except Abby, whose finely honed intuition tells her this woman doesn't belong behind bars. 

With the help of her husband Dutch and her friend Candice, Abby launches into her own investigation to clear Skylar and find the real killer. But after a final appeal is denied and Skylar's attorney scrambles for a stay of execution, time is running short and the list of suspects keeps growing. There's no margin for error as the life of an innocent woman hangs in the balance.

Brushing off the dust on some of my older TBR books, I found myself returning to Victoria Laurie’s first series, Psychic Eye Mystery! I remember discovering this series when I tired of not finding any paranormal books in the YA section, those are the Dark Years friends. What’s great about diving back into this series is that each book kind of stands on its own. There are some things that carry over from book to book, but it’s mostly personal stuff that you can easily get right back into. Sense of Deception is one where Abby has a very tight deadline to solve the case or else an innocent woman’s life will be put to an end.

At the beginning of this book, Abby finds herself being held in contempt of court and sent to prison. Her cellmate just happens to be of a woman named Skylar Miller who has been on death row for killing her son for the past decade. Her final appeal is just over a week away and after exchanging just a few words with her, Abby is convinced without a doubt that Skylar is innocent. Once she’s free from jail, she gets on the case and begins the long and tedious process of research.

Though trying to prove Skylar’s innocence isn’t her only case, she’s still trying to help her husband, Dutch, find a way to convict a serial rapist/killer—coincidentally whose trial she was testifying at when she was held in contempt—and get him put behind bars for good, and also, help the detective that arrested Skylar with a case he’s struggling with. Nothing Abby can’t handle, though there is that looming deadline until Skylar’s final appeal. Texas is a state that’s fond of the death penalty and if the appeal doesn’t go in her favor, she’ll be looking at the needle by midnight.

To my knowledge, Abby has never had to solve such a cold case before. Especially one that most people considered closed. Since my gut instinct is to always trust Abby and her gut, I was rooting for her. Though she hits many obstacles and dead ends, each failure felt like the end for poor Skylar. Naturally, some of the people Abby has to question about an event that was ten years ago, aren’t the most savory. It’s a good thing her BFF, Candice, has her back! Candice is one tough cookie, who I would never want to be caught on her bad side! But I love that she and Abby always have each other’s back when it comes to these cases of theirs.

What I have always loved about Victoria’s mysteries are the amazing characters! Abby is such a real person to me! She’s carefree, has amazing talents being a psychic, but isn’t without her flaws. She had me laughing more than once throughout this book. Plus the relationships she has with her friends, coworkers, and her husband too, are just amazing! They are such a tight-knit group at times, even though they challenge one another and may have doubts when it comes to work related matters, they always manage to stick it out together.

The story has a nice balance of mystery solving and everyday life, add in the fact that Abby is psychic, and you’ve got just the right twist to make things interesting! I am so happy to have returned to this series and after a brief interruptus of review books, I plan to come back here and get caught up with it! It’s one of the longest running series I’ve read to date at 15 books, whether there will be a book 16 this summer I have yet to find out, fingers crossed though!

Try as I might with this one, I didn’t quite get to the whodunit before Abby did. I at one point had a brief suspicion over the murderer, but then what I thought were more promising suspects came about! It’s kind of fun though to be taken by surprise and to remember that I ought to go with my gut, like Abby when it comes to picking my suspects! Lol!

If you’re looking for a fun, light-hearted mystery with the added touch of paranormal and still increasing danger, then look no further than Victoria Laurie and her Psychic Eye Mystery series!!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars