Chill of Fear

June 20, 2005
Something old, and dark, and cold. Something evil" is on the loose at a remote, exclusive resort in the Tennessee mountains in the easy-reading second installment of the Hooper's Fear trilogy (after Hunting Fear
). When an eight-year-old girl mysteriously goes missing—at least the sixth disappearance in the past few decades—a crack team of paranormals, the FBI's Special Crimes Unit (SCU), aka Spooky Crimes Unit, is on the case. SCU head Noah Bishop and telepathic new recruit Quentin Hayes recover the girl and stick around to track down the lurking evil once and for all. This isn't Hayes' first stay at the Lodge: on vacation with his parents there 25 years earlier, 12-year-old Hayes discovered the strangled corpse of his friend Missy, an unsolved crime that has haunted him since. On this visit, Hayes meets Lodge guest Diana Brisco, a striking redhead who's at the resort taking a therapeutic art class to treat the nightmares, disorientation and blackouts she's suffered since childhood. Hayes helps Diana understand that she's not crazy but rather powerfully psychic, and they join forces to rid the Lodge of evil. Hooper's latest may offer her fans a few shivers on a hot beach.

July 1, 2005
Although rather lightweight in plot and plausibility, Hooper's frightening foray into the world between death and the afterlife will evoke memories of Stephen King's " The Shining." The setting here is a sprawling Tennessee resort hotel called the Lodge, rather than King's abandoned Colorado hotel, but scary, all-knowing children figure in both plots. Agent Quentin Hayes, part of a special FBI unit featuring psychics and mediums, has been returning to the Lodge for years, attempting to solve the murder of a girl he befriended while staying there as a young boy. Diana Brisco, a troubled young woman with inexplicable mental problems, is also staying at the Lodge while undergoing experimental art therapy. After meeting Quentin, Diana begins to share his belief that she is a medium and not crazy at all. Can they solve the old murder case before new deaths occur? The end is a little disappointing, but the novel is well worth reading for the scary ride it provides.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)