Premiere of Krentz's new trilogy about a psychic detective agency.

In this latest addition to the Arcane Society series, para-detective Fallon Jones has finally met his match in Isabella Valdez, who has washed up in his home base, a remote, cliffside Northern California village called Scargill Cove. A few decades back, a commune of hippies lived here, under the sway of a guru who disappeared under mysterious circumstances but whose skeletal remains were later found in a bomb shelter hidden behind the Cove's no-tell motel. Scargill, a "nexus" of psychic energy, is a magnet for the preternaturally endowed. Strong, silent Fallon, whose psychic "talent" empowers him to see order in chaos, is instantly drawn to Isabella. Isabella invites herself to join Fallon's agency, Jones & Jones, as an investigator. Fallon is descended from those paranormal aristocrats the Joneses, Victorian-era pillars of the Arcane Society. For centuries, the Society, a shadowy league of talents working for good, has battled the minions of occult evil. The first case Isabella takes on, a routine ghost check of a mansion listed for sale, uncovers much more than she bargained for: a serial killer, a basement hiding human remains and, more importantly for Jones & Jones, a clock invented by Victorian genius, and Jones' nemesis, Mrs. Bridewell. That's just the beginning of this impossibly convoluted saga. Fallon and Isabella succumb all too soon to blistering passion, but probably not often enough for romance readers' expectations. The plot connecting the sex scenes, which involves internecine warfare among good psychics, bad psychics and clandestine government agencies, not to mention factions within the Society itself, soon becomes too "arcane" to sustain interest.

A chaotic welter of loose ends that Fallon himself couldn't unsnarl.

Reclusive, brilliant Fallon Jones counts himself lucky that he has found an assistant like Isabella Valdez—organized, insightful, and totally accepting of his unnerving chaos-theory talent. But Isabella is not only a powerful talent in her own right, she is on the run from someone who wants her dead—and she has gone to ground in Scargill Cove, a tiny coastal town where no one asks questions. A macabre discovery in an old house gets things off to a chilling start as Isabella and Fallon are in a deadly web that stretches back to the malicious glass creations of Victorian inventor Millicent Bridewell, cleverly designed weapons that have lost none of their power over the years, as Fallon and Isabella quickly discover. VERDICT With vibrant wit and consummate flair, the creative, captivating Krentz has delivered another ingenious, suspenseful tale that unravels a mystery, pairs up another perfect couple, and successfully launches a new "Arcane Society" trilogy with well-placed hints of the delightful evils to come. Krentz (Fired Up) lives in Seattle.

The cops just can't handle psychically powerful criminals who deal in weapons-grade paranormal artifacts. Enter the Jones & Jones detective agency. Known for his solitary habits, investigator Fallon Jones has taken on an assistant, Isabella Valdez, who displays some unusual talents of her own as she helps him dig through an ever-expanding mess of paranormal criminal activity. Krentz's latest Arcane Society novel is loaded with sexual tension between the tough-but-lovable Isabella and the normally dour Fallon, and the story hilariously alternates between inventive, deadly action and the amusingly gossipy smalltown characters in Scargill Cove, Calif., a supernatural nexus. Krentz (aka Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick) never rests on her laurels, carefully crafting a story that works on every level: as a detective novel, a paranormal thriller, and a romance. (Jan.)