Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
New York : Roc, 2007, c2006.
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. HTML:View our feature on Kat Richardson's Greywalker. Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died-for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker-walking the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she's discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of "strange" cases. In the days leading up to Halloween, Harper's been hired by a university research group that is attempting to create an artificial poltergeist. The head researcher suspects someone is faking the phenomena, but Harper's investigation reveals something else entirely-they've succeeded. And when one of the group's members is killed in a brutal and inexplicable fashion, Harper must determine whether the killer is the ghost itself, or someone all too human. Read Kat Richardson's posts on the Penguin Blog..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member imayb1
The sequel to Greywalker is much less grey, and much less contrived than the first book. In her second book, Kat Richardson continues with the good parts of her debut novel and builds new characters and new history for her setting. Still, if you're looking for something that grabs emotions or
The story is a more classical whodunnit, albeit with the inclusion of paranormal ghost/grey powers on the part of the private investigator, and psychic powers on the part of the suspects. Harper, the main character, is hired by a psychologist who is convinced his people-and-paranormal experiment has a saboteur. When she investigates the scene, Harper comes to a different conclusion-- one full of trouble with a mysterious murder on top.
For those who enjoy seasonal or holiday-related books, the story took place during Halloween.
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thrills you, this isn't it. It's the reading equivolent of a kiddie roller coaster: it has rises and dips rather than suspensful climbs and fast downhill drops. It is essentially a mild version of the wild ride it could have been.The story is a more classical whodunnit, albeit with the inclusion of paranormal ghost/grey powers on the part of the private investigator, and psychic powers on the part of the suspects. Harper, the main character, is hired by a psychologist who is convinced his people-and-paranormal experiment has a saboteur. When she investigates the scene, Harper comes to a different conclusion-- one full of trouble with a mysterious murder on top.
For those who enjoy seasonal or holiday-related books, the story took place during Halloween.
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LibraryThing member bibliojim
The story was too slow - not enough action. But then, I remember that some of Agatha Christie's books struck me that way, too, and they're pretty classic. This book comes across as a normal mystery, except for the visibility of the Grey. The protagonist doesn't seem to have much empathy for people,
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and for me, that makes her a lot less likeable. The author kept bringing mentions of a friends' child, as a diversion. But the child seems fairly obnoxious, and the protagonist doesn't react to the child in a positive way. I thought it was an undesirable distraction from the plot. This is the second book in the Greywalker series. I didn't read the first one, and I felt this book would have probably been better read only after reading the first of the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member extrajoker
first line: "I sat in a boxlike office for twenty-three minutes as Professor Gartner Tuckman told me that he and a motley group of strangers had made a ghost."
While I think Richardson does a better job describing the supernatural in this book than she did in the first, it wasn't as engaging
While I think Richardson does a better job describing the supernatural in this book than she did in the first, it wasn't as engaging
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overall. I can't say exactly why, except that it felt much more like a mystery novel with paranormal aspects than it did an urban fantasy. Also, I'm not sure she handles the minority characters (some of whom seem stereotypical) and racial tensions as deftly as might be desired. Still, I have every intention of sticking with this series, the third installment of which is due to be published in 2008. Show Less
LibraryThing member selfmanic
While a great read, it did not live up to the sweeping flow of the first book in the series. Still a good book that I will be keeping in my library and looking for the next in the series.
LibraryThing member reannon
I ripped through the first book in this series, Greywalker, which affected me very strongly on an emotional level. This book I enjoyed, but it was a wholly different experience. The emotional reaction was muted, but the intellectual stimulation greater. In this book a psychology experiment that
I found the experiment a fascinating one. Recommended.
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showed that convincing a group of people that a ghost exists would allow them to create manifastations of a ghost... and they do, but one of the members of the group dies. Harper Blaine, who can see ghosts in the Grey, a dimension next to ours, knows that the group is affecting and being affected by Grey phenomena. Can she stop other killings?I found the experiment a fascinating one. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member iBeth
Slightly more interesting than book one, but the Harper character still disappoints. I just can't believe in Harper's unwillingness to learn more about the Grey--she is an investigator, for goodness sake, yet she displays very little curiosity about phenomena she is fated to live through. I also
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don't understand why this obviously assertive woman would meekly accept whatever conditions her client sets. And then there is the boyfriend that she cannot bring herself to confide in (she doesn't even try, preferring instead to repeatedly p*** him off). The university events aren't believable either--this study would never get IRB approval, let alone grant money (perhaps most readers wouldn't mind that, but I did). This book gets very close to being an "idiot" plot, where the plot wouldn't happen if the protagonist didn't behave like an idiot. Quinton is the most interesting character yet we see very little of him. At least Harper has a cell phone now and not that anachronistic pager. I don't think I'll be reading any more of this series--too many other books on my "to read" list. Show Less
LibraryThing member justchris
Harper Blaine is the stereotypical hard-boiled detective, and in the opening chapter of the first book Greywalker she is viciously assaulted by someone she's been investigating and is clinically dead for about seven minutes. When she recovers, nothing is the same. She sees things that aren't there,
All of these stories are essentially fast-paced action movies on paper. While all of the characters are distinctive, all are without depth, including the protagonist herself. This isn't really a series about personal growth, simply the growth of supernatural superpowers. Which is a shame, because so many of these characters have potential. And the romantic subplots--are there to add the mandatory sprinkling of spice, not depth.
Poltergeist deals with just that, but it is apparently created as part of a university experiment. This is where we meet apparently Harper's only friend from before her accident and new life: Phoebe Mason, a bookstore owner whose family immigrated from Jamaica. I think the main reason for creating a black friend was to bring in the Caribbean version of the poltergeist--the duppy. It's nice that Kat Richardson isn't relying solely on European legends for her material. The final showdown takes place in Chinatown, so more local history and cultural diversity to the story. The romance is limping along through long-distance phone calls with Europe, since Will took a job with Sotheby's in London.
So what do I like about the stories? She does her homework and does a good job with the scenery and exposition to give readers a feel for the locales. She has a fair sprinkling of different cultures and racial groups--detective Solis is a Colombian by birth, then there's the Jamaican Mason family, the various Native Americans who show up in Underground. Harper owns a ferret. She does a great job portraying ferrets as pets, and it is certainly a nice change from all of the cat owners in mysteries.
What don't I like? The characters are shuffled in and out of stories with no real pacing or development, just sudden left turns and departures. Each story is entirely crisis management, there's no sense that Harper has anything approaching a normal routine, even if the normal has been redefined. Never any visits with friends or plans for a restful weekend or calls from annoying relatives. So the characters are essentially cardboard cutouts that are moved around the board as needed without any sort of convincing motivation or sense of inevitability.
And most commonly, Harper's reactions to the Grey and to vampires and to whatever else is nausea. But boy, she keeps trooping right along with the nausea and other physical discomforts. As someone who's gone through chemotherapy, it's kind of disturbing to have nausea tossed in there as the most common physical symptom Harper contends with, and yet she just shrugs it off. Shit, there's whole suites of pharmaceuticals and endless brochures and books of advice for how to cope with nausea, which can be quite debilitating, and continue to get vital nutrients and survive. I don't think the author has any grasp of it, really, and every time I read about the nausea in the story it makes my guts twinge.
Similarly, her interactions with the vampires. She has profound physical reactions to them, admits they scare the pants off her, but then she just blithely handles them. Once again, doesn't convince me. And as a friend pointed out, they have such prosaic names: Edward, Carlos, Alice, Gwen, and so on.
So if you want quick entertainment that will occupy you for a few hours, with characters you aren't really going to become attached to, this is the series. It's kinda like the John Grisham of urban fantasy. Kat Richardson is certainly better than some others I've read in this style. I'm not going to go out and buy any of these books though, and I'm returning the ones I borrowed.
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she's propelled into some sort of misty, dark otherwhere, she's seeing the things that go bump in the night. In effect, that misty borderland between the natural and the supernatural is called the Grey and she now has a permanent passport to travel there. There's no going back to regular life.All of these stories are essentially fast-paced action movies on paper. While all of the characters are distinctive, all are without depth, including the protagonist herself. This isn't really a series about personal growth, simply the growth of supernatural superpowers. Which is a shame, because so many of these characters have potential. And the romantic subplots--are there to add the mandatory sprinkling of spice, not depth.
Poltergeist deals with just that, but it is apparently created as part of a university experiment. This is where we meet apparently Harper's only friend from before her accident and new life: Phoebe Mason, a bookstore owner whose family immigrated from Jamaica. I think the main reason for creating a black friend was to bring in the Caribbean version of the poltergeist--the duppy. It's nice that Kat Richardson isn't relying solely on European legends for her material. The final showdown takes place in Chinatown, so more local history and cultural diversity to the story. The romance is limping along through long-distance phone calls with Europe, since Will took a job with Sotheby's in London.
So what do I like about the stories? She does her homework and does a good job with the scenery and exposition to give readers a feel for the locales. She has a fair sprinkling of different cultures and racial groups--detective Solis is a Colombian by birth, then there's the Jamaican Mason family, the various Native Americans who show up in Underground. Harper owns a ferret. She does a great job portraying ferrets as pets, and it is certainly a nice change from all of the cat owners in mysteries.
What don't I like? The characters are shuffled in and out of stories with no real pacing or development, just sudden left turns and departures. Each story is entirely crisis management, there's no sense that Harper has anything approaching a normal routine, even if the normal has been redefined. Never any visits with friends or plans for a restful weekend or calls from annoying relatives. So the characters are essentially cardboard cutouts that are moved around the board as needed without any sort of convincing motivation or sense of inevitability.
And most commonly, Harper's reactions to the Grey and to vampires and to whatever else is nausea. But boy, she keeps trooping right along with the nausea and other physical discomforts. As someone who's gone through chemotherapy, it's kind of disturbing to have nausea tossed in there as the most common physical symptom Harper contends with, and yet she just shrugs it off. Shit, there's whole suites of pharmaceuticals and endless brochures and books of advice for how to cope with nausea, which can be quite debilitating, and continue to get vital nutrients and survive. I don't think the author has any grasp of it, really, and every time I read about the nausea in the story it makes my guts twinge.
Similarly, her interactions with the vampires. She has profound physical reactions to them, admits they scare the pants off her, but then she just blithely handles them. Once again, doesn't convince me. And as a friend pointed out, they have such prosaic names: Edward, Carlos, Alice, Gwen, and so on.
So if you want quick entertainment that will occupy you for a few hours, with characters you aren't really going to become attached to, this is the series. It's kinda like the John Grisham of urban fantasy. Kat Richardson is certainly better than some others I've read in this style. I'm not going to go out and buy any of these books though, and I'm returning the ones I borrowed.
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LibraryThing member SheilaDeeth
Poltergeist is Kat Richardson’s second Greywalker novel. It’s now sitting on my husband’s bookshelf waiting for him to finish Turn Coat, Jim Butcher’s latest Harry Dresden offering. Once he finishes, I’ll start…
But I was the one to read Poltergeist first, and I really enjoyed it. The
All the old characters are here, even the world-trotting boyfriend carrying on his long-distance relationship. Quinton remains as mysterious and intriguing as ever. The scared vampire and the scary vampire continue to rack up debts owed and paid. And those who think they know it all end up learning they really don’t, which seems fair to me.
Poltergeist is a fascinating mystery with dark undertones and exciting chases set in an absorbing world. But it’s only number two in the series, so I’m pleased to know I’ll have plenty more to go.
Now, if my husband would just hurry and finish Turn Coat…
But I was the one to read Poltergeist first, and I really enjoyed it. The
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two series (Harry Dresden and Greywalker) really do fit well together, with both authors slowly adding to their mysterious worlds, both giving the feel of a protagonist who doesn’t know it all but is wise enough to learn. Harper Blaine learned to see into the edges of the Grey in Greywalker. Now she learns more control over what she sees and how she perceives it. Her friends’ small child provides light relief with disastrous consequences, and a group of interested recruits in a paranormal research experiment provide the odd dead body and wounded hand.All the old characters are here, even the world-trotting boyfriend carrying on his long-distance relationship. Quinton remains as mysterious and intriguing as ever. The scared vampire and the scary vampire continue to rack up debts owed and paid. And those who think they know it all end up learning they really don’t, which seems fair to me.
Poltergeist is a fascinating mystery with dark undertones and exciting chases set in an absorbing world. But it’s only number two in the series, so I’m pleased to know I’ll have plenty more to go.
Now, if my husband would just hurry and finish Turn Coat…
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LibraryThing member krau0098
This is the second book in the Greywalker series. Book 3 "Underground" and book 4 "Vanished" are already out. The fifth book "Labyrinth" is due out in August 2010. Right now there are six books contracted for this series. This book was a great addition to the series. I listened to this on audio
Harper Blaine is starting to get better at this Greywalker thing. Then she gets a call from a psychologist who is running a study with a group of people who are supposed to be using their mental energy to create a Poltergeist. Well the group has either created or summoned something and things are starting to get violent during their seances. The psychologist is convinced that someone in the group is faking the effects and wants Harper to find out who it is. When one of the group members either dies or is murdered the stakes are increased and Harper has to figure out if the happenings are paranormal, normal, or a combination of both.
I really like Harper Blaine as a character. She is definitely not a bad-ass but she is smart. She approaches her cases with a very analytical mind, sets up great plans to solve her cases, and is very practical about it all. Mira and Ben as the couple that assist Harper with paranormal knowledge are great, and their little two year old boy Brian had me chuckling at his antics a number of times (maybe this is because I have a three year old son). I liked Brian's crazy two-year old stunts and thought they added some humor to the book.
This book is definitely more of a paranormal mystery than any other genre; Harper doesn't really have a love interest in this book and Harper assumes mundane causes before fantastical causes. A lot of time in this book is spent going into technical details on how ghost phenomena can be faked. Another large chunk of time is spend going into technical detail on how the Grey works. I really enjoyed the technical discussions; Richardson has done her home work and I found a lot of the information around the faking of ghost phenomena to be very interesting. This is a warning to people who don't like this kind of stuff though; if you aren't interested in hearing all the intricate details behind the workings of things then this book might not be for you.
I really loved how Richardson has expanded Harper's working with the Grey. I still enjoy the creativity behind the idea of the Grey and the idea of Harper being able to travel through layers of ghostly time is really interesting and adds a whole additional layer to the story. The story was very engaging, action packed and the writing very readable.
My only complaint with this book was that Harper only had the one case to work on and, at times, her foot work on that case got a bit boring. It would have been nice to have Harper juggling a couple cases, as she did in the first book, to keep things interesting during the inevitable lulls in the one case.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to listening to the next book of the series on audio book. If you like paranormal mystery that pays special attention to detail when explaining the workings behind the paranormal phenomena then I think you will really love this book.
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book and the audio book was very well done.Harper Blaine is starting to get better at this Greywalker thing. Then she gets a call from a psychologist who is running a study with a group of people who are supposed to be using their mental energy to create a Poltergeist. Well the group has either created or summoned something and things are starting to get violent during their seances. The psychologist is convinced that someone in the group is faking the effects and wants Harper to find out who it is. When one of the group members either dies or is murdered the stakes are increased and Harper has to figure out if the happenings are paranormal, normal, or a combination of both.
I really like Harper Blaine as a character. She is definitely not a bad-ass but she is smart. She approaches her cases with a very analytical mind, sets up great plans to solve her cases, and is very practical about it all. Mira and Ben as the couple that assist Harper with paranormal knowledge are great, and their little two year old boy Brian had me chuckling at his antics a number of times (maybe this is because I have a three year old son). I liked Brian's crazy two-year old stunts and thought they added some humor to the book.
This book is definitely more of a paranormal mystery than any other genre; Harper doesn't really have a love interest in this book and Harper assumes mundane causes before fantastical causes. A lot of time in this book is spent going into technical details on how ghost phenomena can be faked. Another large chunk of time is spend going into technical detail on how the Grey works. I really enjoyed the technical discussions; Richardson has done her home work and I found a lot of the information around the faking of ghost phenomena to be very interesting. This is a warning to people who don't like this kind of stuff though; if you aren't interested in hearing all the intricate details behind the workings of things then this book might not be for you.
I really loved how Richardson has expanded Harper's working with the Grey. I still enjoy the creativity behind the idea of the Grey and the idea of Harper being able to travel through layers of ghostly time is really interesting and adds a whole additional layer to the story. The story was very engaging, action packed and the writing very readable.
My only complaint with this book was that Harper only had the one case to work on and, at times, her foot work on that case got a bit boring. It would have been nice to have Harper juggling a couple cases, as she did in the first book, to keep things interesting during the inevitable lulls in the one case.
I enjoyed this book and look forward to listening to the next book of the series on audio book. If you like paranormal mystery that pays special attention to detail when explaining the workings behind the paranormal phenomena then I think you will really love this book.
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LibraryThing member jjlangel
Better than the first one, but still no Jim Butcher.
LibraryThing member TerryWeyna
After I blogged about M.L.N. Hanover’s Jayne Heller books (reviewed here) and Seanan McGuire’s October Daye novels (reviewed here), a few folks in the know suggested that I give Kat Richardson’s Greywalker urban fantasies a try. It was good advice: Richardson beautifully combines noir mystery
Blaine is a Seattle private investigator who is attacked in the course of a routine job; she dies from the savage beating she suffers, but her death lasts only two minutes before she is revived. As a result of her momentary death, however, she has gained an ability to see into the Grey – a world that is our own, but not entirely of this earth. The Grey is a place where ghosts live, and all times overlap the present. There are hungry creatures in the Grey, too, and Harper’s ignorance of what is going on there threatens to kill her again, this time permanently.
Greywalker, the first of the series, introduces the important series characters with panache. Harper first hires Quinton, a technology whiz who sets her up with a good security system in her office, and soon becomes indispensable for a number of other tasks. Then she meets up with Mara and Ben Danziger, who know a lot more about the Grey than she does, and are willing to teach her what they know. And then, of course, there are the unfriendly neighborhood vampires, and the ghost who lives in the Danziger’s house, and another ghost who hires Harper, and before she really knows what’s going on, she has acquired a new specialty in the paranormal.
Greywalker manages to introduce all these characters while spinning a genuine noir mystery as well. It’s as much a page-turner as any mystery I’ve ever read. Despite the fact that the set-up sounds, well, corny – I would have told you before I read this book that it wouldn’t be my sort of thing at all – Richardson keeps it as noir as a dark alley in 1940’s downtown Seattle. Her own skepticism about the Grey is probably what keeps this from falling into cuteness at any point, not to mention that Harper’s paranormal clients and enemies are genuinely scary. Richardson’s vampires don’t sparkle, and her ghosts have nothing in common with anything out of “Ghostbusters.” This is cold, harsh reality in a grim world that has more wrong with it than we could possibly know – unless we’d died for two minutes and awakened in the Grey.
Poltergeist, the second book in the series, was disappointing after Greywalker’s great start. The set-up is tied much more closely into real events, as a professor in a fictional Seattle university attempts to re-create the Philip project, an experiment actually conducted in the early 1970s by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research in which a group of volunteers attempted to “create” a ghost – to use the power of their combined minds to imagine an entity and then attempt to call him up in conditions similar to those of a séance. The professor gets a lot more than he bargained for, and is convinced that someone is faking psychic phenomena. He calls in Harper to investigate and tell him who his troublemaker is. But Harper finds there is more going on than fakery, and worse: it isn’t long before someone is dead.
Richardson doesn’t seem to a handle on her plot and pacing in Poltergeist, as she did in Greywalker. The story takes a very long time to develop, especially after it becomes clear who the villain of the piece is. I was disappointed that, after a strong debut, Richardson fell into a classic sophomore slump.
Despite my disappointment, though, I’m looking forward to reading the remaining three Greywalker mysteries in print, Underground, Vanished and Labyrinth. Richardson has a solid heroine and a good concept going for her. I’m looking forward to seeing Harper become established and confident in her abilities in navigating the Grey, and am curious as to where Richardson will take her.
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with psychic craziness in her tales of Harper Blaine. Blaine is a Seattle private investigator who is attacked in the course of a routine job; she dies from the savage beating she suffers, but her death lasts only two minutes before she is revived. As a result of her momentary death, however, she has gained an ability to see into the Grey – a world that is our own, but not entirely of this earth. The Grey is a place where ghosts live, and all times overlap the present. There are hungry creatures in the Grey, too, and Harper’s ignorance of what is going on there threatens to kill her again, this time permanently.
Greywalker, the first of the series, introduces the important series characters with panache. Harper first hires Quinton, a technology whiz who sets her up with a good security system in her office, and soon becomes indispensable for a number of other tasks. Then she meets up with Mara and Ben Danziger, who know a lot more about the Grey than she does, and are willing to teach her what they know. And then, of course, there are the unfriendly neighborhood vampires, and the ghost who lives in the Danziger’s house, and another ghost who hires Harper, and before she really knows what’s going on, she has acquired a new specialty in the paranormal.
Greywalker manages to introduce all these characters while spinning a genuine noir mystery as well. It’s as much a page-turner as any mystery I’ve ever read. Despite the fact that the set-up sounds, well, corny – I would have told you before I read this book that it wouldn’t be my sort of thing at all – Richardson keeps it as noir as a dark alley in 1940’s downtown Seattle. Her own skepticism about the Grey is probably what keeps this from falling into cuteness at any point, not to mention that Harper’s paranormal clients and enemies are genuinely scary. Richardson’s vampires don’t sparkle, and her ghosts have nothing in common with anything out of “Ghostbusters.” This is cold, harsh reality in a grim world that has more wrong with it than we could possibly know – unless we’d died for two minutes and awakened in the Grey.
Poltergeist, the second book in the series, was disappointing after Greywalker’s great start. The set-up is tied much more closely into real events, as a professor in a fictional Seattle university attempts to re-create the Philip project, an experiment actually conducted in the early 1970s by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research in which a group of volunteers attempted to “create” a ghost – to use the power of their combined minds to imagine an entity and then attempt to call him up in conditions similar to those of a séance. The professor gets a lot more than he bargained for, and is convinced that someone is faking psychic phenomena. He calls in Harper to investigate and tell him who his troublemaker is. But Harper finds there is more going on than fakery, and worse: it isn’t long before someone is dead.
Richardson doesn’t seem to a handle on her plot and pacing in Poltergeist, as she did in Greywalker. The story takes a very long time to develop, especially after it becomes clear who the villain of the piece is. I was disappointed that, after a strong debut, Richardson fell into a classic sophomore slump.
Despite my disappointment, though, I’m looking forward to reading the remaining three Greywalker mysteries in print, Underground, Vanished and Labyrinth. Richardson has a solid heroine and a good concept going for her. I’m looking forward to seeing Harper become established and confident in her abilities in navigating the Grey, and am curious as to where Richardson will take her.
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LibraryThing member theniceone
A good continuation of the Greywalker series, this left me wondering what would happen next. This book seemed a little more assured than the last one, which is a good sign. Richardson's descriptions of the Grey, how it works, and how magic works were good, although she doesn't quite achieve the
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solid realism that an author like Deborah Grabien does. But the book was a good read, and I'll definitely buy the next in the series when it comes out. Show Less
LibraryThing member les121
Poltergeist is a good second installment in the Greywalker series. The world of the Grey is interesting and unique, yet it has a classic, dark, ghost story feel. The mystery is more complex than the typical urban fantasy, with a complex mixture of clues, motivations, and obstacles that Harper has
My only critique is that I guessed the culprit halfway through the book. Harper gains a piece of info about one of the suspects that screams “Psycho!” but she completely misses that vibe. Still, it was an entertaining read. The premise of Poltergeist is so fascinating that I felt compelled to find out more about the Philip experiments, the real life research into paranormal phenomena on which the story is based. In addition, I love the atmospheric Seattle setting and the little nuggets of history embedded in the story. The scenes with Carlos were also compelling; he’s one of those characters that falls into the grey area - please excuse the pun - between good and evil, and that ambiguity is what makes him the story’s most interesting character.
Overall, Poltergeist was a solid second book, and I’m greatly looking forward to reading the next Greywalker mystery.
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to deal with. In fact, the plot is more like a crime novel with a strong paranormal flare. (Which reminds me, thank you for the reference to one of my favorite fictional detectives, Ms. Richardson. It made me smile.)My only critique is that I guessed the culprit halfway through the book. Harper gains a piece of info about one of the suspects that screams “Psycho!” but she completely misses that vibe. Still, it was an entertaining read. The premise of Poltergeist is so fascinating that I felt compelled to find out more about the Philip experiments, the real life research into paranormal phenomena on which the story is based. In addition, I love the atmospheric Seattle setting and the little nuggets of history embedded in the story. The scenes with Carlos were also compelling; he’s one of those characters that falls into the grey area - please excuse the pun - between good and evil, and that ambiguity is what makes him the story’s most interesting character.
Overall, Poltergeist was a solid second book, and I’m greatly looking forward to reading the next Greywalker mystery.
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LibraryThing member cmwilson101
This is the second book in the Greywalker series, and has our PI investigating a poltergeist at a local university.
The Greywalker series is based on the interesting premise that there is a world parallel to ours; this world is called the Grey, and it is populated by ghosts and other supernatural
Enter our heroine, Harper. She is a detective in Seattle who is attacked and dies for a few minutes before being revived. Afterward, she is able to see into the Grey and is called a Greywalker. Harper is helped by Quinton, an off-the-grid technician, and Ben and Mara Danziger, who study the Grey and help her understand what she is seeing and experiencing.
This second story in the series was a bit more complicated than the first, and bogged down in detail a bit; however, it is interesting to learn more about the Grey . I also liked how Harper's relationships develop as she becomes more involved in the Grey.
The Greywalker series is based on the interesting premise that there is a world parallel to ours; this world is called the Grey, and it is populated by ghosts and other supernatural
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creatures. The Grey is layered with slices of time, in which old buildings exist and ghosts act out parts of their previous lives. Most people cannot see the Grey, though some people can communicate with inhabitants of the Grey. Enter our heroine, Harper. She is a detective in Seattle who is attacked and dies for a few minutes before being revived. Afterward, she is able to see into the Grey and is called a Greywalker. Harper is helped by Quinton, an off-the-grid technician, and Ben and Mara Danziger, who study the Grey and help her understand what she is seeing and experiencing.
This second story in the series was a bit more complicated than the first, and bogged down in detail a bit; however, it is interesting to learn more about the Grey . I also liked how Harper's relationships develop as she becomes more involved in the Grey.
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LibraryThing member LeanneSF
Second book in the Greywalker series. This follow-up was an improvement over the first book, with a better paced story and more interesting case. The idea of a group of individuals actually creating a poltergeist was unique and Harper's search for the truth behind its actions was tension-filled and
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action-packed. It had me guessing at the last minute (I was wrong by the way) and I would recommend this book to those who enjoyed Greywalker, and fans of Patricia Briggs and Jennifer Estep. Show Less
LibraryThing member talksupe.blogspot
Since the story is from an investigator's POV we get a little education on effective illusion and all those technicalities that you hear being thrown in Ghost Hunters or other ghost tours? Yup Kat Richardson shared that background stuff with us too. And it's tight, all that EMF, telekinesis and the
Harper Blaine is like my other favorite heroine, Mercy Thompson. She's driven, a strong female and doesn't take crap from anybody. The plot is not as complicated either. Compared to Greywalker, Poltergeist is focused and didn't have the other distractions of its predecessor. Here Harper is just tackling her investigation and mastering the Grey with the help of Ben and Mara Danziger.
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accompanying psycho babble was well researched and not some made up explanation to justify the story. Harper Blaine is like my other favorite heroine, Mercy Thompson. She's driven, a strong female and doesn't take crap from anybody. The plot is not as complicated either. Compared to Greywalker, Poltergeist is focused and didn't have the other distractions of its predecessor. Here Harper is just tackling her investigation and mastering the Grey with the help of Ben and Mara Danziger.
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LibraryThing member puttocklibrary
I thoroughly enjoyed this second entry in this series. Blaine leads an unusual life, and is drawn into an interesting mystery/haunting in this gripping story, while also learning more about herself, and her unusual, newly acquired "gift".
The characters felt real and complicated, and very definitely
I'm looking forward to further installments!
The characters felt real and complicated, and very definitely
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didn't figure it out before the end. I'm looking forward to further installments!
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LibraryThing member Krumbs
I keep trying to enjoy her books, but I'm having some issues with the writing style. Huge, long paragraphs of exposition relating information that isn't vital to the development of the story. I understand wanting to demonstrate the large amount of research done in pursuit of a valid backstory, but
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the reader doesn't always need to know the details. I think Kat Richardson does better with short stories--much tighter plot-lines with less opportunity to lecture the reader. Show Less
LibraryThing member page.fault
Poltergeist was a refreshing read and good enough that I'm rushing to find the sequel. The premise is interesting and the story and characters are reasonably engaging. The protagonist, Harper Blaine, a small-time PI in Seattle, died for two minutes and was revived with a strange power: she is able
Blaine is an engaging character and a sympathetic narrator. She's a bit too wish-fulfillmentish for my taste--thin, tall, pretty, intelligent, full of special skills, and with several close and loyal friends--but YMMV. For all that, I liked her--she was the first strong female protagonist I've seen in a while whose brain is in charge rather than her hormones--although possibly only because her boyfriend is out of the country. In any case, it was refreshing for a female protagonist to have the love interest so firmly off-screen.
The one issue that seriously bothered me was what I saw as Richardson's incredibly simplistic treatment of racism. A black student gives Blaine attitude, and she tells him he has a chip on his shoulder, points out to him his own instinctual racism against her, and it's all magically better! The Chinese girl has stereotypical Asian parents. I'm not a racial minority, and even I know there is so much more complexity than is being shown here, and that the very superficiality of the portrait is offensive. The attempt of Richardson to "understand", then her dismissal of racial complexities, felt to me both patronising and obnoxious, even if well-intentioned. Otherwise, I was moderately engaged by the characters, especially Quinton, the tech nerd.
Despite its supernatural edge, the flow and pace of the story felt less like noir and more like golden age mystery--something by Sayers or Christie, perhaps. Standard noir typically has gangsters and gunfights galore. The noir PI doesn't detect so much as poke around until bullets start to fly. He (or she) is then catapulted from explosive scene after explosive scene, becoming increasingly embroiled in the politics of the dark underbelly of the city. Typically motives and methods, and even individual players, are not paramount--there are too many players with simple motives (power, money) and gangster guns behind them. The structure of Poltergeist, on the other hand, follows in the tradition of the whodunit. There is a mysterious death and a limited set of suspects. Blaine questions each one by one, trying to tease out motives and methods. Although danger escalates, there is plenty of time for exposition and conversation, and Blaine's main interest is the suspects rather than harrowing escapes and imminent doom. Perhaps the flow was a little choppy and slow, and despite some potentially dangerous circumstances, the story never made my pulse rise. I though Richardson's voice and tone fit the golden-age mystery style well. The most irritating thing to me was the constant repetition of the word "Grey" (capitalized). I'd guess that "Grey" pops up about 5 times or more each page. There needs to be a better way of describing things without the constant repetition of That Word. Although the characters are perhaps stereotypes, they still are potential suspects and therefore have inner motives and complexities.
I'll definitely be picking up the next book--I really enjoyed the mixture of cozy mystery and fantasy. Richardson also has a great deal of fun with the poltergeist, bringing in discussions of techniques for scams and mimicry, and even giving a shout-out to Dorothy L. Sayer's Strong Poison. How could I NOT love a book that does that?
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to see-sometimes inadvertently--into the Grey, the world of spirit and magic. She is pulled into a case where a poltergeist, created in a during an unusual sociology experiment, begins to go rogue and draws the other subjects into mystery and murder. Blaine is an engaging character and a sympathetic narrator. She's a bit too wish-fulfillmentish for my taste--thin, tall, pretty, intelligent, full of special skills, and with several close and loyal friends--but YMMV. For all that, I liked her--she was the first strong female protagonist I've seen in a while whose brain is in charge rather than her hormones--although possibly only because her boyfriend is out of the country. In any case, it was refreshing for a female protagonist to have the love interest so firmly off-screen.
The one issue that seriously bothered me was what I saw as Richardson's incredibly simplistic treatment of racism. A black student gives Blaine attitude, and she tells him he has a chip on his shoulder, points out to him his own instinctual racism against her, and it's all magically better! The Chinese girl has stereotypical Asian parents. I'm not a racial minority, and even I know there is so much more complexity than is being shown here, and that the very superficiality of the portrait is offensive. The attempt of Richardson to "understand", then her dismissal of racial complexities, felt to me both patronising and obnoxious, even if well-intentioned. Otherwise, I was moderately engaged by the characters, especially Quinton, the tech nerd.
Despite its supernatural edge, the flow and pace of the story felt less like noir and more like golden age mystery--something by Sayers or Christie, perhaps. Standard noir typically has gangsters and gunfights galore. The noir PI doesn't detect so much as poke around until bullets start to fly. He (or she) is then catapulted from explosive scene after explosive scene, becoming increasingly embroiled in the politics of the dark underbelly of the city. Typically motives and methods, and even individual players, are not paramount--there are too many players with simple motives (power, money) and gangster guns behind them. The structure of Poltergeist, on the other hand, follows in the tradition of the whodunit. There is a mysterious death and a limited set of suspects. Blaine questions each one by one, trying to tease out motives and methods. Although danger escalates, there is plenty of time for exposition and conversation, and Blaine's main interest is the suspects rather than harrowing escapes and imminent doom. Perhaps the flow was a little choppy and slow, and despite some potentially dangerous circumstances, the story never made my pulse rise. I though Richardson's voice and tone fit the golden-age mystery style well. The most irritating thing to me was the constant repetition of the word "Grey" (capitalized). I'd guess that "Grey" pops up about 5 times or more each page. There needs to be a better way of describing things without the constant repetition of That Word. Although the characters are perhaps stereotypes, they still are potential suspects and therefore have inner motives and complexities.
I'll definitely be picking up the next book--I really enjoyed the mixture of cozy mystery and fantasy. Richardson also has a great deal of fun with the poltergeist, bringing in discussions of techniques for scams and mimicry, and even giving a shout-out to Dorothy L. Sayer's Strong Poison. How could I NOT love a book that does that?
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LibraryThing member JenLamoureux
Much improved over the first book in the series. Fun junk food for the brain :)
LibraryThing member Schedim
En par with the first book, good plot, interesting characters, the metaphysics are a bit thick sometimes tho.
LibraryThing member pennylane78
I like this series. it is getting a three star rating because I feel that the first book's story was better. though I do like that the character seems to be getting used to her ability and doesn't get sick or talk constantly about being nauseous in this book. it tended to get a little tiresome
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hearing about it in the first installment. I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series! Show Less
LibraryThing member bookaholic
I've read the entire Greywalker series, and I picked this one up to re-read because of it's fairly unusual premise: can a group of people create a poltergeist through the power of their belief? The smarmy researcher doesn't believe it; he's got an entirely different ax to grind. So when his group
I enjoyed this book (again) and ended up re-reading the entire series. It'd been long enough that the plot details were fuzzy in my mind. I classify it as a paranormal mystery.
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starts to actually get results, he hires P.I. Harper Blaine to figure out who (besides his own plant) is producing the manifestations, and how. And then people start dying... I enjoyed this book (again) and ended up re-reading the entire series. It'd been long enough that the plot details were fuzzy in my mind. I classify it as a paranormal mystery.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
Harper is hired by a local psychology professor to investigate the unexpected happenings in an experiment he's running on psychokinesis, involving a group of participants' ability to "create" their own poltergeist. Little does the skeptical Professor Gantner know how qualified this particular PI is
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for the job. The further she investigates, however, the more convinced Harper is that the group of misfits has, in fact, created a real ghost. And, when Dr. Gantner's assistant Mark is suddenly murdered in a decidedly unusual fashion, Harper immediately sets out on the trail of the ghost and the individual controlling it. From the spooky, beginning build-up to the interesting middle, it was pretty good. Towards the end the story started moving haphazardly and became predictable. I still look forward to reading more of this series. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2007-08-07
Physical description
341 p.; 23 cm
ISBN
9780451461506