review no 18: craven by melanie casey

Having read and enjoyed Hindsight I was eager to read its sequel Craven. We are reunited with Cass who is blessed/cursed with the psychic gift of retrocognition and has taken the big step of moving to Adelaide and taking a job at a university. Given that she re-lives the death of person if she happens to be where it happened, her daily existence can be challenging. Hoping for anonymity Cass is hugely disappointed when she is recognised in her first lesson and then becomes a target of gossip.

The fledgling romance with (detective) Ed which began in Hindsight had faded as the story began, although he too is working in Adelaide. It is Ed who Cass calls, however, when she becomes the victim of a vicious hate campaign. Drawn back together under these less than ideal circumstances Cass inevitable gets caught up in Ed's latest case investigating a serial killer.

There are the usual elements of suspense and intrigue as Cass's stalker becomes increasingly violent and menacing. I thought the pacing of the story was a little bit uneven, with most of the action taking place in the latter section of the book, however this did not detract too much from the telling of the story.

I was a little bit disappointed that Cass's mother and grandmother were not as present in this book as I really enjoyed them as characters in Hindsight.

I did enjoy Craven and the ongoing development of Cass as a character and look forward to further titles in the series.