Links: Paul Haggerty's Review (01/04) / Show Official Info /

This is a bit of an odd book, although I suppose it is what one should now expect from Spider Robinson who seems to have veered off the SF path the past few years while never quite actually managing to fully break free. This book is really a horror novel built around the SF trope of mind reading.

Russel Walker is living in Canada's Northwest, writing, pining for his dead wife and thinking of killing himself. Before he can commit the deed however, an old college friend shows up with a problem. Smelly, the old college friend, can read minds and has picked up on a particularly vile one, a serial killer who has perfected the art of torture. He wants to track the killer down and get him off the streets, but he can't do it alone.

Smelly needs Russel's help because he can't stand to be too near people due to the psychic overload it causes. So he looks up Russel so that Russel can be his go between with the police so they can get the killer. Russel heads off, chancing to meet Constable Nika Mandic, whom he manages to convince of the genuineness of his need by having her come in range of Smelly. But, with no hard evidence there's not much that any of them can do except try to resolve the whole mess on their own.