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?
This is book 5 in the Psycop series. In books 1-4 we heard various references to Heliotrope Station aka Camp Hell – the facility that Vic and other psychs “trained” at – and every time Vic recollected anything in his life from that period of time he broke out in a sweat. It was not a time to be thought of fondly.
In this book we find that Vic has decided to face his fears and look into Camp Hell and the people he was there with via the internet, only he can’t find anything. There’s nothing to be found at all: nothing about the fellow psychs he was there with, nothing about the place itself – and rating 10 on the uber-weird scale…nothing on himself. It doesn’t matter where he looks on the internet there is absolutely no information about him. Needless to say this freaks our already somewhat paranoid main character right the hell out. He wants to find out who is hiding him in plain sight and find out why they’re doing it.
After using his psych friend Lisa to gain information about who can help him acquire information he heads to his old partner, and the man who tried to kidnap him for his own gain, Roger Burke. Burke attempts to coerce Vic into recanting his statement so that he can get out of prison and if Vic agrees he’ll give him any info he has on Camp Hell. Why does Burke have this information? He used to work for the FPMP – the Federal Pararnomal Monitoring Program. The same people who seem to be following Vic around wherever he goes. When Vic realizes that he’s being followed and checked in on on a regular basis, he’s suddenly afraid to talk to Jacob in their own home or use his cell phone.
But as much as he wants to stay away and hide from the FPMP they’re right there, invading every nook and cranny of Vic’s life. Vic has some incredibly hard decisions to make about how exactly he wants to live his life and how the FPMP will fit into it…or not. Along with this craziness he finds his old lover from Camp Hell who is a hypnotist. Stefan helps Vic in some regression therapy and Vic starts remembering some things about events at Camp Hell.
I can tell you that I’ve been on an absolute binge of the Psycop books in the past couple of weeks. I was really mad at the end of this book! Was it because it sucked? Absolutely not. It was because it was the last one I could dive into! lol
Camp Hell, as well as all of the other books in this series, are just incredibly good reads. Ms. Price has such a wonderful way of pulling you into the story and not letting go. The world she built is much like the one we currently live in but it’s got the added knowledge that psychics of all sorts do exist. The books are incredibly humorous and I found myself laughing through many different parts of the book. The books aren’t comedies though – they are considered horror but I never thought that anything was so gruesome that I couldn’t read it. Yes, dead people/ghosts are described but it was all ok for me.
Along with the humor and the horror we have the relationship between Vic and his boyfriend Jacob that has been growing, moving and changing since book 1. I gotta tell you I love those two together. They just work. Are either one of them perfect? No way, but even when they have trying times in their relationship they work it out and it just makes my crazy romantic heart do the happy dance. Such a great romance I can’t even put it into words. Oh, and the sex. Beyond a doubt some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve ever read. These boys pull no punches and I fuckin loved it.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I loved Camp Hell…as well as all the other books. I could babble and gush til I’m blue but I’m just gonna say: read the books. Seriously. If you haven’t already read them go get them now and devour them. It will be so worth your time.
Rating: 5 out of 5
I agree with you completely. Can't wait for the next book although knowing me I'll put off reading it because I'll be sad that we have to wait. I think Jordan said one more after. I think, I could be wrong. Anyway, I dislike horror as a rule but I don't find these too frightening or gross (although they have their moments) so anyone who may be put off by that shouldn't worry. If a big chicken like me loves them they can't be too bad. 🙂
I never thought of them as horror!
I know exactly what you mean, Tam. I have the Sweet Oblivion books sitting on my ereader unread because if I read them, I won't have any JCP left to read.
Tam – Yeah, I love digging right into a book when it releases but then hate having to wait for the next one. 🙂
Chris – I think they're supposed to be horror, aren't they? No? Maybe Urban-Fantasy-with-descriptions-of-dead-people-that-might-turn-your-stomach? lol
Besides The Art of Dying that I read last week and Hemovore I haven't read any of her other books so I'm looking forward to changing that! 🙂
I think I classified them as paranormal. Horror tends to leave me squicked out.
Hopefully I'll begin this series soon. I've heard great things about it. I love that it's PNR but that JCP uses psychic powers instead of more vamps and weres.
Great review! I totally loved this series and hated it when I got to the end. I'm so looking forward to more.
Chris – Horror squicks me out too but I'd have to say that some of the descriptions of dead people are pretty…bloody. I think it was book 3 that was really bad.
Hilcia – It is a great concept and definitely not one that's been overused. I think you'll really love it.
Lily – lol It was hard to have it end. I'm MORE than looking forward to the next book.
OMG – how did I not know about this book?!? I loved the other psy cop books! Thanks for the review, I'm gonna have to get this today!
I didn't get on the computer at all over the weekend 🙁 (I'm not counting via my iPhone.) So not buying this series…but buying them is on my 'to do' list. No, seriously. I need a 'to do' list so I don't forget everything 🙂
KC – Oh I'm so glad to let you know! Enjoy it!
Orannia – I need a to-do list as well! lol If I don't write things down forgettaboutit.