Among the Living (PsyCop, #1) in Queereaders

Oct 05, 2009 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-books, outlaw-reviews, favorites, shelf-inflicted, gay, crime-mystery-thriller, paranormal, erotic-romance

Cross-posted at Shelf Inflicted and at Outlaw Reviews

Among the Living is told from the perspective of Victor Bayne, a cop in Chicago’s Paranormal Investigation Unit. He is a Class 5 medium, with the ability to communicate with the dead. At the start of the story, Victor is attending a retirement party for his former partner, Maurice. He nearly crashes head first into Detective Jacob Marks, who eventually becomes his lover, and gets called in to investigate a very unusual homicide.

Victor is ass ...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Kelly (Maybedog) rated it really liked it

Shelves: what-lgbtqia, what-modern-fantasy, what-male-protagonist, why-favorite-series, why-favorite-author, what-mm-read, where-grr-mine, what-ghosts, what-uniforms-and-investigations, what-mediums-and-psychics

More of a novella than a novel but a good first book. I enjoyed it immensely. The love story is sweet and all the characters are interesting. I love the main character's insecurities, although he makes himself sound like he isn't good at anything except seeing ghosts which is just automatic not a skill in his mind. I just wanted to give him a big hug and tell him everything is okay and that he has a million things to offer the world. I didn't like how closeted he is but I think it's probably pre ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Chris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebook, done, favorites, gay, reread, 2009, romantic-suspense, 2011

4.5 stars. Excellent m/m paranormal romantic suspense about a PsyCop, who can see ghosts even though he really would prefer not to. (This is one of my comfort rereads... you might've guessed, as it's the second time I've read the book this year!) ...more

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Oct 30, 2009 LD Durham rated it really liked it

Shelves: gay-fiction, urban-fantasy

This was chosen for me for the M/M Romance group's "November- Pick It For Me! Challenge" and I am so glad it was.

I've been wandering around these books for a while, sorta-kinda interested, but hadn't taken the plunge. After tearing through the first one, I must say this was well-written, engaging, fun, and sexy. I really enjoyed being inside Vic's head. His was a very nice head to be in, with all his quirks, faults, and assets. He's a guy you can certainly imagine passing on the street. I had a ...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Chad rated it really liked it

What can I say? I'm hooked...

Think paranormal urban fantasy police procedural romance and you'll have some idea of the basic premise of this novella. Sounds like it could be a bit of a shit storm, huh? But it's not. Price really pulls it off well. Among the Living somehow manages to set up interesting, multi-dimensional, lovable characters, a charming romance and an intriguing world while spinning a compelling (if brief) mystery plot all in the span of roughly 30,000 words. Impressive, if you as ...more

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Mar 02, 2022 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: borrowed, gay, z-read-in-2022, gay-pg

After reading & writing a rave review for the audiobook version of Jon's Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case by A.J. Sherwood, I commented on the reviews of several of my GoodReads friends who excoriated it as a rip-off of this book.

Admittedly this came first, is a good tale that spawned many many sequels (which I'm sure just enriched the world that Jordan Castillo Price started building here.) But I'd like to think that the coincidence of the names Bayne vs Bane was a tip of the hat to this ear After reading & writing a rave review for the audiobook version of Jon's Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case by A.J. Sherwood, I commented on the reviews of several of my GoodReads friends who excoriated it as a rip-off of this book.

Admittedly this came first, is a good tale that spawned many many sequels (which I'm sure just enriched the world that Jordan Castillo Price started building here.) But I'd like to think that the coincidence of the names Bayne vs Bane was a tip of the hat to this earlier work.

The two books do have some obvious parallels. Both books are told in first person from the perspective of a psychic that does police work and has a "partner" that's not a psychic. But beyond that I was curious just how similar they were so asked to borrow a copy of this.

I've decided that two are very very different beyond the superficial similarities previously noted. Which is "better" will probably depend most on what type of material you like to read. Jon's Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case is bright and light-hearted while Among the Living is dark.

First off Jon isn't what most people think of when they speak of a psychic. He doesn't "see dead people." He's more of a visual empath. He's more of a Deanna Trois in a gay man's body. He's irrepressible. He's out and proud. He's also proud of how he's learned to compensate for his "issues." He's even got a self deprecating snarky sense of humor.

Additionally, Jon Bane works with folks that are concerned about him. They respect him. They want to protect him. He's healthy, happy and on the way to healing a lot of his past traumas. His traumas stem from his mother's unhappy marriage, his father's abandonment of the family and his poor luck finding anyone that will deal with the downside of his "gifts." But of course, that changes in chapter 1 of the first book and things just keep getting better after that.

Victor Bayne works for an overbearing boss who gives him no respect. When we meet him he's on the cusp of losing his trusted partner to retirement. He actually finds an ally (Liza Gutierrez) and is ordered NOT to work with her. Plus Victor is on a downward spiral becoming more and more dependent of the drugs that he requires to remain sane. Victor Bayne is unhappy and other than one sexy detective that we get few real details on, no one seems to care.

This book is well constructed, and I can see the appeal for some people. But this isn't the situation I choose to spend my time in.

When I finished listening to book one of Jon's Mysteries, I couldn't decide whether to listen to it again or move on to book two (since it had a different narrator). When I finished this book, I was curious about book 2 to see where this series goes, but I didn't feel the eagerness to continue that I did with the more optimistic series. ...more

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Dec 04, 2009 Keitorin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: m-m

This is probably my favorite m/m book so far! I really like this world and the characters. The idea of PsyCops is just so fun! And the female characters are awesome. I hope to see more of them.

I really liked the main character, Victor, in spite of (or because of) his insecurities. I think anyone can empathize with him for the basis of his insecurity - we're all clumsy sometimes, we all have something about ourselves that we're not sure of. Perhaps most of all though I loved him for his humor. He ...more

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