3.5/5 ( )

Not as good as the last one, but a very decent read.

Six months have passed since Abby woke up with the bomb strapped on her chest, and she's enjoying her life being as dull and routine as possible, until she gets a voice mail from her best friend at 3am telling her "It's not what it seems" and asking her to immediately go to their shared office to get and hid a file. Afterwards, she finds out Candace is wanted for murder - and the entire crime is caught on video.

The rest of the book is Abby's attempts to first find her friend for an explanation and ultimately to hopefully prove her innocence.

There's less sentimentality in this book, but the plotting feels a little nutty. It's no more nutty than a bomb strapped to your chest, but that had the benefit of suspense... it was written to be a high tension story, while this one is a more traditional mystery. It was still good though; I was able to read the whole thing in one setting today (an admittedly lazy day) because it was written more than well enough to keep my attention.

I've got one more in my pile, and I might be getting to it sooner rather than later. It's been fun to be in Abby's world, and I'm not quite tired of it yet. ( )

Candice is in trouble this time and it is Abby and Brice to the rescue. I saw the twist coming from the first. Dutch is too forgiving in this one to be believable; I would have been furious with Abby's behavior. ( )

Fatal Fortune is the twelfth book in the A Psychic Eye Mystery series.

This series get more exciting with every book.

Abby Cooper gets a very cryptic text from her BBF and business partner, Candice Fusco, about 3 am. Candice says that things aren't like the seem and for Abby to go their office and retrieve a file and some money from a hidden safe in her office. Quietly, so as not to disturb her husband, FBI agent Dutch Rivers, she starts to leave for the office to carry out the wishes of Candice. Abby finds the safe and retrieves the file and also finds $50,000. Before she leaves she takes a quick peek out a small window and notices two police cars.
She leaves before the police find her, she heads home and leaves the file and money in a neighbors garage, who happens to be away on vacation. When she gets home she finds Dutch and Brice, Candice's husband in the kitchen. They show he surveillance film taken in parking garage at the Austin airport. The film shows Candice get out of her car and in cold blood shoot a man.

When Abby arrives at the office the next morning, it appears that a tornado went thru the office, starting to blame it on the police. The police are emphatic that they are blameless and Abby know that someone is looking for the items she had gotten out of the safe. She retrieves them and hide them at home, and then decides to confide in Dutch a general idea of what was in the safe. They hatch a plan to make it appear she has turned it over to the FBI. Abby then follows, discreetly, Dutch and Brice as they head to the FBI office with an empty folder. Just as she sees Brice turn on his emergency lights, she sees Candice's car in her rear view mirror. She makes a quick exit to hopefully catch Candice and find out what is going on. But Candice avoids her. She returns to the interstate and finds that Dutch and Brice have someone pulled over and in cuffs. Once she gets to the office, her boss, when she does civilian profiling for the FBI, informs her that Brice and Dutch have apprehended an FBI agent from the Las Vegas office. Brice has been relieved of duty and Dutch has been transferred to the San Antonio office and Abby is “grilled” for some hours.

Before too long they get a call from Oscar who's also an agent that Candice and her car have been found after it crashed off a bridge. At first the reports say she is dead, but late it is changed that she is alive, but barely. Brice gives Abby Candice's clothes, jewelry and purse and convinces her to go home and get some rest. As she is heading to her car, she drops the purse and spills the contents. What she finds and picking everything up shocks her. It appears to be a suicide note and admitting to the murder.

But things don't ring true for Abby. She begins to think it thru and wonders how her purse would have been recovered from the water. Surely it would have went flying in the crash. She then notices that strap wasn't just broke off, it was ripped. Abby feels certain it wasn't a suicide attempt, but something completely different.

So Abby is off to try and find out what connection Candice has to Las Vegas and who is trying to frame her.

A great story in this very enjoyable series.

Looking forward to the next book. ( )

I’ve only heard wonderful things about the Physic Eye Mystery series. Starting with book 11 didn’t have me at the disadvantage I thought it would. I found myself far into the book before I knew it.

Author Victoria Laurie is such a talented writer. While this was not quite a cozy in my opinion, it was an exciting mystery. The action started on page one and just kept gaining momentum right up to the reveal.

I don’t read many paranormals, though I do follow a few paracozy (I just made that word up) series that I love. The physic aspect of this book wasn’t too heavy, so it didn’t feel like it was the only focus of the story. To me, that’s a good thing.

All in all, FATAL FORTUNE is a book that will appeal to a variety of readers of different genres. But for those of you who follow my reviews to find new cozies, this does have a more thriller type of vive than one of a traditional cozy.

Check out the back for the book when you’re done for a sneak peek of SENSE OF DECEPTON, lucky number thirteen in the Physic Eye series. ( )