Krentz summons more fun in psychic-thriller romance

Fans of Seattle author Jayne Ann Krentz know they can count on a late Christmas present each year: the arrival in January of her newest romance novel, more recently garnished with a psychic-thriller element that seems to have spurred Krentz's creativity. The latest book, "Running Hot" (Putnam, 337 pp., $25.95), is the fifth novel in her series about the Arcane Society, a (fictitious) secret organization founded in the 19th century to study people with unusual psychic gifts.

Krentz is working against type here in her characters: You don't often encounter a romantic hero who's a grumpy, psychic ex-cop and sometime bartender, who doesn't like guns and needs a cane to get around. Nor is the typical romance heroine a librarian named Grace, whose luggage for a trip to Hawaii includes a pair of gloves and a nightie suitable for a convent. And how often do you encounter a villain who's a psychic coloratura soprano, capable of killing her chosen victim with the power of her voice?

As is her wont, Krentz starts off the action with an irresistible hook. In this case, it's a 13-page flashback prologue in which the heroine — able to read people's auras — realizes that her multibillionaire former boss is going to kill her. Grace counters his moves with some shocker developments of her own, and "Running Hot" is off and running.

Grace and Luther, the ex-cop, are later dispatched to Maui to apprehend a killer; her job is to identify him by his aura, and Luther's job is to protect her. Krentz immediately establishes the predictable attraction between these two Arcane Society members, but the intensity of their feelings is leavened by the dry, witty humor of verbal interchanges that represent Krentz's dialogue skills at their best.

What should have been a routine job for Grace and Luther — identify and apprehend the killer — suddenly takes a turn for the complicated when Grace discovers not just one, but a whole host of high-powered psychic operatives in what looks like a paranormal convention of sorts at their Maui hotel. She also senses dark spikes in their auras that she's seen before in her former boss, who sought to increase his psychic powers with a dangerous illicit drug. Could her fellow hotel guests be trying out the experimental and unstable drug, Nightshade?

And then that soprano turns up to complicate matters.

The denouement can safely be called unique, involving Grace not only in peril but also in the milieu of Luther's unconventional, good-hearted friends at the restaurant where he's the barkeeper. The novel's story line moves easily between the exotic world of the paranormal talents and the cheerfully down-home world of French-fryers and restaurant camaraderie. Though "Running Hot" is part of a multibook series, it stands just fine on its own — and may tempt first-time readers to check out the rest of the oeuvre.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@aol.com