This book is the first in a three book series of great books. Vic and his lover Jacob are the two main characters. Vic is fairly messed up from his training in ESP and his ability to see ghosts. He is half of a Paranormal Investigation Team. The other half of the team is a non-psychic detective to balance things. Jacb is any gay man's wet dream while Vic is a skinny pill popper that excels at his job. The stories are quick reads and the sex is hot. ( )

These two stories had me page turning. The antihero narrator kept my interest and my sympathy even when making stupid decisions. The mystery plots were a bit thin and the supernatural elements were not extremely consistent. There was a little bit of police procedural flavoring but not much and the Chicago setting got shortchanged I thought. The gay romance/porn interludes were fun and hot.
( )

Among the Living
I am a total sucker for M/M cop stories. I just am. I admit it. And I found Vic and Jacob a wonderful combo—one so willing to pursue and one barely keeping up with the idea of being pursed, but not resisting either.

I also liked that the language was real and not glossed for PCness. How do I express this? At one point, for example, Vic states that a room was full of black boys. But as a reader you understood that this was nothing more than a physical description of the people inhabiting the room. There was no judgement inherent in it or slight intended and thus Vic could skirt the 'is it PC to say this' question. It got around the overly scrutinized way many Americans' sphincter clenches in fear every-time someone dares describe a racial minority. (Please don't get me wrong, in the same way I appreciated the book's frankness, I don't mean to trivialize or demean the very real stresses that still exist in America. But after several years living abroad, I've come to appreciate that not only our utter inability to even talk about the subject, but also our unwillingness/inability to allow the language around race to become normalized and uncharged is prohibitive and I was impressed by the authors willingness to allow the color of a character's skin to be as normal and non-angsty as hair color. Plus, there simply were characters of color.) Similarly, Vic's observation of his own and the victims' gayness felt natural and non-titillated.

While I enjoyed the mystery, I was bothered more than once that Vic had information that the other detectives needed but he never provided. And I thought Lisa's contribution made the whole thing feel a little too easy.

All in all, though, I really quite enjoyed it.

Criss Cross
Again, I quite enjoyed this story by Price. I'll definitely be looking to finish the series and keeping my eyes open for others. I found Vic and Jacob hot together and Jacob is just so wonderfully accepting and understanding. He makes me swoon.

I did think it was all a little predictable. I had it figured out quite early and I thought the plot line (as in who was the bad guy, etc) was one I had read many times before, even if not necessarily with the psychic aspect. And, for being the elite of the bureau they sure don't seem to vet their officers very well. ( )

This book was pretty good. Nice escapism. It's actually two novellas combined into one book. The stories are interesting and creative and the lead character is believable and likable. The secondary characters could have been drawn out a little more, though. Their histories are only touched upon. I would've loved to know more about Lisa and Jacob, for example. Overall a good read when you need nothing more than a nice escape. Only grips are the stories ended too abruptly...too clean. Secondly, the sex scenes are more than really necessary. Most of them do nothing to really move the story forward but seemed to be only there to titillate. But if all you're looking for is a nice "beach read" or "vacation book" then this is a great one to have with you. It's fun. ( )

There’s also a big chunk available as a free preview. Victor is a PsyCop and Jacob is a regular cop with a PsyCop partner of his own. Victor’s special talent, talking to the dead, distresses him so much he regularly doses himself with serious drugs to numb his sensitivity. Jacob hooks up with him (they’re having sex only a few pages in!) and then they immediately get caught up in a murder investigation that seems to involve the paranormal. It moved a little fast for me—I never really got why Jacob was so into Victor so fast, especially given Victor’s self-description as sloppy druggie—but I can see why slash fans might like Price’s work. ( )