by Mary Anne Barker

Details on how to win a copy of Vacant at the end of this review along with a link to purchase the book.

Vacant is number four in the science fiction Mindspace Investigations series. The story takes place in the future in Atlanta, Georgia. There are people who have certain mental powers, and Adam is a telepath. Most of those who have developed powers like telepathy belong to the Guide, but Adam was thrown out for drug use.

Adam and Cherabino are on a date in a crowded club, which is difficult for Adam, since it overwhelms his telepathic power. But when the music starts he finds it’s a wonderful experience. Adam is struggling with several problems, and he wants to get close to his partner, Cherabino, who is a police officer. She works for the DeKalb County Police Department. He likes her, but she is not the easiest person to get to know. Among other things, he is in debt to the Guide, and is getting a pre-cognizant vision of a boy about to be killed. Then Cherabino begins to have trouble with Internal Affairs. They are claiming that she killed someone. Adam wants to help her, but he gets a call from the FBI about a job; they want him to help them protect a ten-year-old child.

Adam takes the job to protect the child, a boy named Tommy, in Savannah. This is the child about whose death he has been having pre-cog visions, at the hands of a very nasty man, Sibly, whom he and Cherabino had once put in jail. But now he’s out. So Adam is working with the FBI to save Tommy’s life.

The book is interesting in a dark way, and the pace keeps moving. Adam is struggling with addiction, trying hard to stay clean, and rebuild his life after his world has crashed. There are times when he just wants to lose himself in the drugs and stop dealing with life and all its problems. The story reads very true to life. There is the interesting question of if you “see” something bad that will happen in the future, is it fate and set in stone, or can your choices change the outcome? Most of us hope that if we do see something bad coming, we would be able to change it enough to make the future better.

You can read the Mindspace Investigations series out of order, but the growth of the characters is clearer if you start at the beginning.

To enter to win a copy of Vacant, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Vacant,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen March 7, 2015. U.S. residents only.

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Mary Anne Barker works at the Reedley Library. She loves books, TV and movies.