Marnie Baranuik Files Series, Book 1 Touched / A. J. Aalto / 582 pages

Marnie Baranuik is a rare dual-talented forensic psychic. She has the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects.  She also has a doctorate in preternatural or supernatural biology, a working knowledge of the dark arts, and is considered without peer in the psychic community. But after her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a broken heart and a serial killer in the wind, she decides that working with the FBI just isn’t for her and retires. Then the FBI's preternatural crimes comes knocking on her door at her remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, goodbye quiet retirement.  She is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Not to mention that vampire-hunter is one of the detectives and is the man who broke her heart. They’d had a brief affair while they worked the case that Marnie got shot on, he didn’t visit her in the hospital, and then she found out while in the hospital that he has a fiance.Narrated by Amy McFadden 18h 9 min.

Haunted/Kay Hooper/305 pages

The small mountain town of Sociable, Georgia has just lost one of its citizens. He was killed very neatly in a locked bedroom in a locked apartment. The town's sheriff, Trinity Nichols, discovered his body after being lead there by her very intuitive dog, Braden. She immediately calls Bishop, head of the Special Crimes Unit of the FBI. He dispatches two of his agents who are currently on another seemingly unrelated case. In addition, one agent is summoned by his sister who lives in Sociable.


This series blends crime solving and the paranormal very well. The series has become so extensive that Hooper includes a cast of characters that includes all the books in which they have appeared as well as a glossary of psychic terms and abilities. I'm almost tempted to go back to the beginning to refresh my memory on the development of the series.

The First Prophet/Kay Hooper/390 pages

Sarah Gallagher suffered a head injury, and when she woke up from the coma, she had pyshic abilities that scared her and the people closest to her. When her house is set on fire in an apparent attempt to kill her, she turns to a new-found friend to help her understand what is going on around her and possibly change her future. Is her vision of her death a prophecy or a prediction and can either of those be changed?

This is the first in a new series called The Bishop Files. For those fans of Kay Hooper's FBI Special Units series and Bishop himself, be forewarned that he plays a very small role in this book. But, it is still a great story.