All Seeing Eye [Mass Market Paperback]

The reason why I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars is mainly because the book while a good psy novel, is also horror and while the whole book is very well written that much death is not really my taste but it is really well written.

There is at least one negative review of this novel. I decided to read it anyway and I'm really glad that I did. Jackson Eye is blessed or cursed with Psychometry after a tragedy which blighted his young life. He discovers the dead body of his baby sister, Tess, dumped in a well and when he tells his mother that his stepfather killed her, she flips out and trys to kill him. After his stepfather grabs the knife and kills his mother, Jackson goes for the shotgun and shoots his stepfather.

He and his surviving baby sister are thrown into care. (As usual the fictional image of children lost in the American State system is far from positive.) He ends up in a Home and it is there he meets Charlie, who is a fellow sufferer in this children's hell. Fleeing the home, he ends up at a carnival and from there develops a career as a psychic.

His surviving sister, Glory, gets into trouble and he is blackmailed by the Government into helping rescue a secret military project which has gone tragically wrong, ending in the death of Jackson's former room mate Charlie. With the help of Charlie's younger brother Hector, Jackson must prevent further tragedy while dealing with his own issues.

I confess I cried. I found it a really well written book and I really hope Rob Thurman takes the character further.

Rob Thurman once again delivers another excellent, plot driven story with All Seeing Eye. The main character, Jackson Lee Eye, is another snarky, sharp witted man similar to Cal Leandros but with his own distinct voice. Jackson is a psychic whose background is anything but pleasant, his mother and younger sister where murdered by his stepfather and in turn he kills his stepfather. This even triggers his psychic ability of pscyhometry as touching his baby sister's shoe reveals to him that she had been murdered. Jackson swears to protect his other sister Glory but a life in a state home and then on the run mean that this is not in the cards. The only positive that Jackson can remember from the state home is his roommate Charlie Allgood who he has affection for even if he does his best to deny it. Years later that brief friendship comes back to haunt him when Charlie's brother Hector turns up and blackmails him into helping with a government run scientific project gone wrong. Charlie is dead and it was murder but because of the nature of the experiment is trapped in a post life limbo that wrecks havoc on sites where murders occured. Hector is taking a wild bet that Jackson's psychometry will help him find out why Charlie died and most importantly help stop Charlie's spirit and let him be at peace. Jackson is forced to use his talents to defend both himself and in the end Hector and a few other people as the plot thickens and more and more people seem out to get him and Hector who, despite his best efforts, becomes a friend and someone he can trust. Needless to say I am only giving a bare bones plot outline here the story is complex and enthralling. Jackson and Hector are both fleshed out as fallible men both doing their best in a bad situation. I will admit I had a suspision as to who the bad guys could be before it was revealed by Thurman but the story was that enjoyable that I didn't mind and I was just interested in how it would come to pass. There are twists at the end that are unexpected, things that turn Jackson's life upside down and sideways but at the end of the story you feel that he has come to a good place, with people he counts as true friends and with a whole new reason to live. I hope that this isn't a stand alone book. I really want to find out how Jackson will deal with the fall out from the end of this book and what happens to him now that the government knows that there are real psychics out there. Having had him in their grasp once I can't see them leaving him alone if something requiring his talents should occur again. All in all and great read and one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys paranormal murder mysteries.