Camp Hell by Jordan Castillo Price

Blurb from JCP Books: Victor Bayne honed his dubious psychic skills at one of the first psych training facilities in the country, Heliotrope Station, otherwise known as Camp Hell to the psychics who’ve been guests behind its razorwire fence.

Vic discovered that none of the people he remembers from Camp Hell can be found online, and there’s no mention of Heliotrope Station itself, either. Someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to bury the past. But who?

Camp Hell is the fifth book in Jordan Castillo Price Psy Cop’s series. The Psy Cop series is an urban fantasy series, the main character is a detective, gay and a powerful medium. I had no idea she had a new book out, but I went to her website and saw this book there. So I had to get it. I finished it quickly, too.

There is plenty of drama and secrecy. The people who buried Camp Hell show up front and center. Vic finds himself trapped with them, constantly followed, never really safe. Out of a need to defend himself, he learned more about his talent, learned to use to protect himself. But there are a few other good things.

There is plenty of sex. If you find explicit gay male sex disturbing, well, you can either skip past those parts or not read this. But if you don’t, the sex is fairly good, it is well within character, and if it is not strictly needed to forward the story, it is needed to help show the love between Victor and Jacob.

He found one of the people from Camp Hell, the only person he remembers, a lover. Steven is a very strong empath, a level 5 and that’s strong enough not only to sense emotions, but also to manipulate them. Steven has his own therapy business and helps Vic deal with his repressed memories of Camp Hell. Those memories are some of the best part of this book. Vic discovers things he doesn’t really like about himself. He scores some good drugs from Steven, too, and that can’t help but make Vic happy. But their last confrontation ends on a bad note and I can’t help but wonder if they are still friends.

The other really good part is about Jacob. Jacob is Vic’s mate, another PsyCop. He is the Stiff – i.e. someone without any psychic talents – part of a PsyCop partnership. Jacob has a dream come true.

But the very best as far as I am concerned is the confirmation that Vic is higher than a level 5 medium. I mean, previous books hinted at that, but it is great to have confirmation! I wanna know how much higher. I hope future books will tell me that, hmm?

Review for the first three books at Rain on the Roof: http://sharrow.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/the-psycop-novels-by-jordan-castillo-price/

Review for Criss Cross: http://tcm-ca.com/reviews/1465.html

Review for Partnership at: http://www.scatterwind.com/psycop-partners-by-jordan-castillo-price/

Review for Secrets at Rain on the Roof: http://sharrow.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/secretspsycop-novel-by-jordan-castillo-price/

Grade: B