Deadly Vision Paperback – January 10, 2008

Plot/Storyline: 4 StarsWhile the plot was not overly original, Mr. Reed did use one new aspect. Instead of having his main character be psychic from childhood, delving into all the little moments in the past where the kid shows talent, but no one believes, his main character, Cass, receives her psychic powers in the beginning of the novel by getting hit on the head. This gave the novel an even flow without a lot of flashbacks trying to explain aspects of Cass' new `talent.' Instead, the reader was allowed to learn about it along with Cass.As Mr. Reed is known for penning Gay/Lesbian novels, it was no surprise that Cass was a lesbian. However, any reader can enjoy this novel without worry that Cass' sexual orientation will be offputting. There were no graphic sex scenes, for one thing. For another, Cass could just as easily have been straight as far as the storyline was concerned. This, for me, gave the novel a more realistic feel.The storyline flowed smoothly with a good pace, until the last quarter. At that point, there seemed to be a lot of `filler' designed to make the novel longer, since it was fairly short, drag out the suspense, or both. I'm thinking it was a little of both reasons. I don't mind a little added suspense, but, at times, the buildup was rather cheap. There is a scene (not right at the end) where someone has to tell Cass something, and, instead of coming out and saying it, the person says something else, implying that Cass' son was dead. I would think that if you had a desperate mother looking for her son, you would immediately tell her that what you had to say had nothing to do with her child.The `psychic' portion of the story was handled wonderfully. I didn't feel that there was any "cheating." I also enjoyed the ending.Character Development: 4 3/4 StarsCass was a sympathetic character, easily understood by any woman, especially a mother. From the opening "Prologue", I am hoping that there might be a sequel featuring Cass solving other murders, kidnappings, etc.The reporter was also a terrific character. I wouldn't be upset to see them together in a sequel.The police were pretty realistic in the beginning, reacting as I would have expected when confronted with a woman claiming to have visions. However, I did feel that the female officer's character could have grown a little more once she was shown proof.Writing Style: 5 StarsThe sentence structure was excellent. There was just enough complexity for good literature, but not so much as to ruin the flow of a good thriller. The dialogue was realistic, with the exception mentioned above. The descriptions were terrific, concise and vivid.Editing/Formatting: 4 3/4 StarsThere were a couple of instances of missing words. There was also one incorrect pronoun, calling a 'she', `he'. Otherwise, the editing was very good.The formatting was of professional quality.Rating: PG-14 for Violence and Child Molestation

Cassandra "Cass" D'Angelo is a single Mom just trying to get by in Summitville ("just 45 minutes from Pittsburgh") when Max, her seven-year-old son wanders off during a thunderstorm. When she goes looking for him, there is a lightning strike and a tree branch conks her on the head, putting her in the hospital. It's there, that she discovers that she had died, and was brought back to life, and like Stephen King's Johnny Smith (in "The Dead Zone") Cass discovers that she has psychic powers. She starts having visions and she realizes a recently missing girl, the sixteen-year-old wild-child Sheryl McKenna, is dead and that Cass has had a vision as to where she is buried. These visions are becoming unbearable, and she makes the plunge and goes to the McKenna household to talk her parents. Well, this goes badly for everybody involved. McKenna's parents are a pair of sanctimonious sods, one an ex-party girl, and the other a religious drug user and child rapist, and Cass has to flee the house after Sheryl's mother gets violent. It goes equally, although less dramatically, bad when she goes to the police to report her visions. However, the father of Lucy Plant, the first girl to disappear, hears from Sheryl's mother about Cass and contacts her on the possibility that Cass might be able to find his daughter. Long story short, she does, and in doing so she draws the attention of washed up, and never was Danielle "Dani" Westwood reporter who sees Cass as her ticket out of Summitville. The hoopla that Dani brings down on Cass also gets the attention of the killers. And the killers are a man/woman pair. The first being Ian, and he's the dominant, a psychopath who's created his own delusional god, and the other is the passive Myra Hindley, or the ex Penny Landsdale, a one-time high school misfit, who was "rescued" from obscurity and remade into Ian's lover, follower, and partner-in-crime. Cass's story takes place over only a couple of days as while Dani is bringing down a media circus on Cass, Ian & Myra are stalking Cass. Then the two kidnap Max and all bets are off as Cass has to face the limitations of her powers as she & Dani try to track down the killers. There was a lot here that to like. Such as the this novel's whole working class ethic, there is no professional investigator here. Cass isn't independently wealthy, and is struggling to keep her job while all of this is happening. She's a waitress in a dying town and is just trying to get by when these two maniacs set their eyes on her as their next victim. And while much is made of Dani on the cover copy, she has only a marginal role later in the novel. Another thing for me to like was that Reed didn't clutter up his novel with an unnecessary romance as most commercial bestselling novels do. On the other hand, except for Cass and Myra, Reed does little more than sketch out his characters, some of which (like the McKenna's) take up space but who either eventually go nowhere, or have to work hard to be two-dimensional. A good instance of a lost opportunity is Ian. Ian is a dominating force in this novel, but despite Reed making this a multi-perspective novel; he never bothers exploring Ian's character. All that we will ever know about this crackpot is what we can gather from observations from Myra, a character whose passive characterization is inconsistent at best. And why isn't more done with Cass's parents? Her moralistic and small-minded mother thinks that Cass is an addled drug user, although no evidence is ever submitted to this fact, while Cass is the apple of her Dad's eye. There should be interesting dynamics there, but Reed barely touches on them. Another problem is, despite the fact that EVERYBODY seems to be a chain smoker, is despite this novel being published by a gay oriented publishing house, and despite having three lesbian characters, nothing is done with it. Cass's lover became a junkie and fled Summitville for the big city lights, Dani WAS a junkie and IS an alcoholic and who drove her lover away, and Marion Hartley, Summitville's only female police officer and chief detective had her lover die, and all three celibates lost their lovers YEARS ago. This makes the character's lesbianism seem more like a marketing tool to get this novel published in the small presses, and nothing more. Now, Cass's psychic vision's only work if she can see or feel something from the victim, but Reed violates this rule late in the novel giving us a deus ex machina just so he can end his story. And what is it with the Prologue? In which a haunted woman is shown finding another couples lost (and dead) child. How does this even feature into the novel? Is this Cass's future? Is this a set-up for a future novel? If so, why does it give the impression that everything in the novel will go badly for Cass? I'm giving this novel only three stars because it could have been so much better. Cass is a good character, and this novel might make a good movie, but weak characterization and plotting otherwise help bring it down. On the other hand, I was never bored. I do have to ask, WHY do so many print-on-demand books have to have such crappy covers? "Deadly Vision" is stuck with one the more mediocre covers that I've seen lately. The quote that forms the title of this review shows how good Reed can be when he wants to, as this sentence can be seen to have two similar but different meanings.

The story was great. It definitely held my attention, and it was very well written.Unfortunately, there were a few glaring issues that stopped me from LOVING the book. I'll preface by saying: I judge a book by how well it keeps me in the story and removes me from my everyday stresses and reality. Deadly Vision had two main gripes that ruined the flow for me and reminded me that I was just reading a book, and it sort of took away from that 'immersive experience' that I rely on.#1 A character can only "bite their lip until they tasted blood" so many times before the repetition is played out.#2 I don't know if the paperback version is better than the Kindle translation, but there were a few syntactic errors that killed it for me (no pun intended). An error or two over the course of 300+ pages is one thing, but more than five is unacceptable. It would only take a proof-reader one read through to pick up some obvious issues (example: one of the character's last names changed suddenly, but only in one page of the book).Those two issues aside, the story was great. The ending was a bit anti-climactic and rushed for my taste, but I still really enjoyed the book. The character development was solid, and that's an important part of any story.