Psychic agents who investigate crimes and give the police tip-offs? Sure, why not. A serial killer who comes back to haunt our heroine? Read that before. The straight-shootin’, non-believin’, good ol’ Savannah police detective who falls in love with the psychic nutjob heroine? Dime a dozen. But as written by Leslie Parrish? Damn good.

Twelve years ago, Olivia Wainwright was kidnapped and held for ransom. After three days she escaped with the help of the young boy Jack, but during the process she died, and when she came back to life she had gained the ability to relive a dead body’s final moments at the touch of her hand. Now she works for eXtreme Investigations, using her psychic curse to help solves crimes, but her world comes to a halt when she hears that the twelve-year-old skeleton of a young boy was found stuffed into a wall near the site of her imprisonment. Terrified by the thought that this might have been Jack, Olivia goes to the crime scene.

Detective Gabe Cooper knows this woman knows something, and he’s inclined to forget about her, even if she is incredibly attractive. When she walks into the police station and tells her personal history she awakens his pity, but her subsequent request to touch the skeleton and learn its secrets sends Gabe’s logical mind into rebellion. Nothing yet may have come of their association if more clues didn’t keep popping up, forcing Gabe to seek out Olivia and the rest of the eXtreme Investigations team to solve a decades-old murder.

Cold Touch stands head and shoulders (and probably a bit of abs, too) above the rest of the crowd. On paper the premise doesn’t hold much allure, but I bought the developments, of plot and character, with complete stoicism. It’s so plausible, and coupled with a sincere depth of feeling, you get a book that is far above the norm. It comes down to Ms. Parrish’s prose, which works equally well with sly humour, bone-chilling terror, and tragedy. Fair warning: This book isn’t gratuitously violent, but it has some very dark and sad moments.

Olivia and Gabe make a fine couple. They both have their share of baggage, Olivia especially, but neither is self-pitying or wallowing. Nor are they relentlessly, overbearingly strong, which honestly irritates me almost as much as cringing downtrodden rugs. Gabe and Liv still have things to learn, and in the short few weeks together they forge a strong relationship that I can see sustained over the next forty years.

Cold Touch lacks that extra spark that’s the hallmark of a DIK; although it is a very good book, it didn’t stay on my mind for days afterwards as other, more striking books have. There are also moments of slight dissonance, usually a turn of phrase that doesn’t flow quite as well as the rest does.

However, even if the book isn’t great, it’s very good. Leslie Kelly, the prolific author of numerous series romances, has a rather checkered record here at AAR, and I’ve personally never found her books particularly memorable. But apparently, we love her pseudonym; as Leslie Parrish her romantic suspense novels have garnered three Bs and one DIK, and the buzz was strong enough that I asked for her latest book. Well, now you can put me down as another fan.

Buy it at A/iB/BN